Foreign Languages

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The Foreign Languages community showcases scholarly publications and research outputs authored by faculty and researchers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages. This collection includes journal articles, working papers, conference proceedings, and other academic works that contribute to the understanding of theory, policy, and practice. It aims to promote open access to high-quality economic research conducted within the institution.

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A literary mapping of the period-specific cultural zeitgeist in American literature of the twentieth century
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Ramadani, Fatmir
The body of American literature is rooted into the demographics of its geographical location and thus serves as a documentation of its cultural, societal and political evolution throughout the course of its history. The notion that everyday work of literature is influenced by or does influence the spirit of the era it has been produced is the point of research in the current research paper. For the purpose of literary mapping of the period-specific cultural zeitgeist in American literature of the twentieth century, the analytical tool of Zeitgeist developed by Krause (2019) alongside the literary research paradigm of “New Historicism” is employed. The research proceeds in the domain of the scholastic mapping of war, illness, drug intoxication and religion and sexuality in American literature. The research is carried out through the content analysis of fictional narratives published in every decade of the twentieth century that hail from a diverse range of authors. The current research endeavors to provide a comprehensive account of the evolution of cultural zeitgeist in the American society from the Jazz Age to the Zeitgeist of Change to the postmodernist extravaganza and the disillusionment until the end of twentieth century.
Access to higher education in Kosovo
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Rexhaj, Xhavit
During the last decade alone, Kosovo saw higher education institutions going from a phase of low access (less than 12 % in the age group) and relatively poor quality of education and research in one public institution to massive access, very poor quality of education and total lack of research in seven public and over twenty private higher education institutions. Higher education in Kosovo is going through a phase of significant albeit uncontrolled and unplanned, increase of access to higher education. Information available shows that for political reasons the government is establishing new universities in all the bigger cities in Kosovo. These policies have resulted in four new universities being established in the last two years alone. Besides being labeled as 'universities ' against respective legal provisions, they are not preceded by a needs assessment or business plan, they remain underfunded and budgets are allocated only after months in operation, they operate with sparse administration and the new management is manned largely from among the members of the ruling coalition parties. This situation renders Kosovo higher education poles apart from that in any other country in the region.
Acquisition of Albanian as a first language from the perspective of natural order hypothesis
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Rexhaj, Xhavit
This study deals with the natural order hypothesis in language acquisition, which posits that there is an order in which grammatical morphemes are acquired in the first, but also second language acquisition. There have been numerous studies addressing the order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes for major international languages, but there have been no such studies for Albanian language. A study of the natural order could serve to improve acquisition of Albanian as mother tongue, to enhance language curricula in schools, and to facilitate learning of Albanian as a second language. This research involved over 100 junior researchers in a crosssectional research observing more than 200 children in the age of 0 to 11 years, organised in four age-groups, over a period of two weeks. The observation collected naturalist nonexperimental data to find out whether there is a natural order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes and structures in Albanian as a first language. The existence of an order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes by difficulty level was clearly established. An unplanned finding of the study was the significant role of dialect and vernacular in the process of acquisition of Albanian as a first language. At the same time, it was difficult to clearly ascertain the role of school and environment in acquiring standard Albanian.
Advertising Semiotics: A methodological discussion on the complexity of the communicatively modeled processes
(AAB College, 2025-07-15) Takovski, Aleksandar
The aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive insight into the net of activities that shape, give content and meaning to the complex process of advertising communication. In this attempt, the paper will primarily refer to the existent semiotic research on meaning making using it as a general methodological background against which it builds and presents its own account. The account itself will focus on the semiotic agents, resources, processes and factors, both supportive and restrictive of the semantic complexity of the advertising message (here taken as metonym of the communication). For the purposes of convenience the whole advertising process is subdivided into three sets of related and semioticly relevant activities: a) processes that precede the production of the message, and are related to the market concerns like company’s image, USB, objective, previous advertising history etc, and that should correspond to the question of What to communicate, b) processes related to the shaping and the communication of the message, and that relate to the question of how to shape and communicate the meaning(s), and c) the comprehensive reception and reaction on the part of the audience, which covers the question of what audiences make from it.
An Investigation of the Representation of Racial Prejudice and Discrimination in the American Literature
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Ramadani, Fatmir
The research paper is an attempt to investigate about the difference in approaches towards the issues of racial prejudice and discrimination in American literature. Most of the works produced in America, belonging to any genre, contain the discourse surrounding race. This discourse has been shaped by the diversity of genres, authors and eras where it has taken place. The current research is performed by the textual analysis of two impactful literary works separated by almost a century to analyze the evolution in the discourse. Anti-Black racism has seen its worst days in the United States of America in the form of the practice of forced slavery and even after its official abolition, it continues to persist. Racial discrimination and racial prejudice are grim realities of American society that have been internalized as an abhorrent mindset and literature of every era reflects it.
An invisible storyteller or a loud recreator? A translator-centered approach to the translation of children’s literature
(AAB College, 2025-07-11) Alla, Aida
This paper aims to demonstrate that, like the original author, a translator of children’s literature (hereafter CH. L.) possesses a distinct style or idiolect, shaped by both linguistic and extralinguistic expectations. The study focuses on the first three books of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, translated into Albanian by Amik Kasoruho, who is renowned for his contributions to the translation of classic adult literature. Given the study’s scope, the analysis will concentrate exclusively on Kasoruho’s creative use of the lexicon in the Albanian translation. Both internal and external factors are considered to identify and analyze translator Kasoruho’s idiolect at the lexical level. Internally, sentences containing words and phrases with common patterns (e.g., archaic terms, dialectal expressions, phraseological units, substandard words) are selected from the target text. These are compared with their counterparts in the source text to determine whether such patterns reflect the author’s style or the translator’s linguistic preferences. Externally, these lexical clusters are assessed against the norms of children’s literature translation (Ch. L. T.) to ascertain whether the translator adhered to or deviated from these norms. The findings suggest that the translator’s linguistic idiosyncrasies significantly influence the translation process.
ANTITHESIS AS POWERFUL LINGUISTIC TOOL OF PERSUASION IN POLITICAL SPEECHES IN KOSOVO
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Llunji, Venera; Paçarizi, Albert
Political speeches play a vital role in the communication strategies of political leaders, enabling them to express their ideas, mobilize support, and persuade the public. Within this context, the effective use of rhetorical devices assumes paramount importance in conveying messages. This paper aimed to investigate the role of antithesis as a potent linguistic tool of persuasion in political speeches, specifically within the context of Kosovo. The paper sought to examine the prevalence and patterns of antithesis in political speeches delivered by Kosovo politicians, analyze its rhetorical effectiveness in shaping public opinion and influencing political discourse, explore sociopolitical and cultural factors that influence its usage, and assess its impact on audience perception and receptiveness to political messages. The paper employed methodologies such as corpus analysis, rhetorical analysis, and sociopolitical analysis, to achieve its objectives. The expected contributions of this paper lie in advancing our understanding of political rhetoric in Kosovo, highlighting the significance of antithesis as a persuasive linguistic tool, and enriching the knowledge base in the field of political communication.
APPLICATION OF FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN PRISHTINA UPPER PRIMARY SCHOOLS
(AAB College, 2025-07-11) Dreshaj, Niman
Examining the evaluation process and the items used to evaluate students is crucial. For student evaluations, teachers are either staying with more traditional methods that need significantly less commitment than present methods, or they are adopting more modern alternatives. The purpose of this research is to find out whether and how Kosovo's student teaching content is evaluated. Thus, the study focuses on identifying various types of test designs that are employed to determine their effectiveness. The goal of this study is to improve teaching and learning by offering reliable information on evaluation. The results display that most teachers are trained to use summative methods, and occasionally formative methods are implemented. The information gathered also reveals that the application of particular strategies by teachers is significantly influenced by their age, length of service, and attendance at training. The results show that older teachers tend to use summative assessments. whereas younger educators use formative strategies.
Avoiding Common Errors for Albanian Learners of English
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Xhemaili, Mirvan
BAC, U KRY! Space, Albanian Commemoration and the Gheg Variety as a Linguistic Symbol of State Independence in Postwar Kosovo
(AAB College, 2025-07-11) Demaj, Uranela; Alla, Aida
This paper investigates the reconstruction of Albanian identity in Kosovo after the region’s transformation to state independence in 2008. The cultural environment emerged as a site of ethnic appropriation and contestation in the longstanding interethnic struggles between the Albanians and the Serbs. The study examines the socio-symbolic and linguistic manifestations of national identity in Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo, through the lens of Linguistic Landscape Studies. The first aspect of the study investigates M. Theresa Boulevard, the central promenade of the city and a site of memory and commemoration, to highlight how the period of South Slavic hegemony in Kosovo and the recent interethnic war resulted in a redefinition of Albanian identity. The second aspect of the study focuses on the written manifestation of the Gheg variety of Albanian as a symbol of Kosovo’s independence. Through this dual focus on memory and language, the study aims to arrive at an understanding of how new national and political self-identifications are shaped in contexts that have undergone ethno-political conflicts and socio-political shifts. We argue that the symbolic configuration of Kosovo suggests a redefinition of Kosovo-based Albanian identity following the transformation to state independence. The study contributes to an understanding of the multi-layered redefinition of Albanian identity in Kosovo, calling attention to language and memory in the process of constructing national identities in postwar contexts.
Changes in the English Language from Synthetic to Analytic: An Argumentative Approach
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Krasniqi, Kadri; Ramadani, Fatmir
The debate upon whether present day English language is analytical is still ongoing, which is why the aim of this study was to determine whether the changes that the English language have gone through have allowed it to change from Synthetic to Analytic. In order to achieve this aim, two research questions were raised: 1. What changes have had an impact on the modern English language since Old English? 2. Is the English language really analytical today? This study was conducted by using qualitative data and the famous Rogerian Argumentative Method. The results showed that as much as English language still has some synthetic aspects, if one looked back all the way to Old English, it is understood that the analytical side of the language takes the lead. The analysis that the English language has had many changes, not just through history itself, but also through its grammar plays a significant role in answering the problem to this research paper.
CODE-SWITCHING IN ELT CLASSROOMS IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO
(AAB College, 2025-07-11) Sallauka, Ardian
The use of the mother tongue also known as L1 as a needed and important constituent in the L2 classroom has been discussed amongst teachers of English as a foreign/second language for a long time. Therefore, the present study wants to answer the following research question: What are the circumstances ELT teachers and students switch between English and Albanian, with the goal to better understand teachers’ and students’ language choice regarding code switching in ELT classrooms. In order to reach the goal, a sample of 15 interviews conducted with primary, secondary, and higher education ELF teachers and of 15 interviews carried out with ELT high schools and university students, from the Republic of Kosovo is determined. The interviews are transcribed and then coded and the analysis rests upon the interpretativeinductive approach. The results of this study show that the majority of the EFL teachers use their mother tongue to either explain their ideas clearly, give instructions, manage the classroom, or understand instructions and ideas appropriately in English, etc. Teachers always switch to their mother tongue (L1) when using EFL (L2) and in very rare cases the opposite. The research results also display that EFL learners use code switching to express themselves better, to explain ideas, to communicate with each other, and to increase comprehension such as in cases when they ask their professors or their colleagues questions, but there are cases worth mentioning when professors and learners use it without even realizing it. This research will help teachers and students have a better understanding of the role of code-switching in ELT classes, and will make them more aware of this very common phenomenon.
Comparing and Contrasting the Syntactical Structures in the English and Albanian Variants of the Harry Potter Saga
(AAB College, 2025-07-11) Alla, Aida
Whenever the issue of translation is raised, the term equivalence is taken into consideration. Becoming an essential feature of translation theories since the 1960s, equivalence was meant to indicate that source text and target text share some kind of “sameness”. The degree of sameness gave birth to different kinds of equivalence, namely lexical, grammatical and cultural ones. Considering that language systems differ from one-another, we cannot assume that lexical and grammatical structures of both source and target language will be identical. On the contrary, it is the meaning and preservation of style which take precedence. The present study aims to observe the similarities and differences in syntactical structures between English and Albanian language traced in the first three Harry Potter novels, written by the British author J. K. Rowling and translated into Albanian by the distinguished translator Amik Kasoruho. Firstly, the translation strategies introduced by the most prominent scholars of translation theory will be explained. These strategies will then constitute the theoretical basis of syntactical and comparative analysis, which will compare and contrast both the source and target texts at the phrase level. Finally, conclusions will be drawn regarding the similarities and differences in the illustrations taken out from the corpus.
Contrastive analysis of the dependent subject clause in Albanian and English
(AAB College, 2025-07-11) Alla, Aida
During the process of foreign language learning, it often happens that students are influenced by native language rules while formulating their ideas in a foreign language, thus failing to pay due account of the fact that linguistic aspects are different in different languages. In light of this finding, this paper/presentation intends to make a contrastive analysis designed to demonstrate, both from a theoretical and practical perspective, similarities and differences between subject clauses in English and Albanian, from a syntactical point of view. Thefollowing presentation examinessome of the linguistic means used to express a subject clause in both languages; their structural typology (based on the conjugation means); the grammatical agreementsbetween the categories of number and person, both direct or otherwise, that this type of sentence establishes with the predicate of the main clause of a complex sentence; as well as its order in the complex sentence. The similarities and differences we intend tounfold in this analysisare expected to be of value to two target-groups: it shall serve English language students as an example illustrating that failure to take account of these linguistic differences in the way a sentence is formed, would result in the use of grammatically erroneous structures and, consequently, create obstacles in interlingual communication. This presentation shall also serve English language university students who may use this modest and by no means exhausting presentation, and elaborate it to a greater extent and in greater detail in their scientific papers.
Difficulties in Learning and Producing Passive Voice
(AAB College, 2025-07-16) Martinaj, Fitnete
This study examines how learners learning English produce and judge English passive voice structures. The ultimate goal of this study is to contribute to an understanding of the extent, nature and sources of learners' persistent difficulties with some syntactic properties of the language they are acquiring. It is to examine whether word order errors in the production of English passive voice by L2 learners stem from lack of knowledge or from difficulties with automatic implementation of L2 procedures. To examine whether errors in the production of English passive voice by L2 learners (in our case, English) can be attributed to transfer of L1 (in our case, Albanian) properties and vice versa, Albanian and English patterns are compared. Taken together, the facts indicate that difficulties with English passive voice structures are a consistent phenomenon in L2 acquisition, and do not follow in a direct way from properties of the L1. Furthermore, the facts show that learners' errors are associated with some syntactic configurations, suggesting that L2 learners divert similar grammatical hypotheses and make use of similar mechanisms for language acquisition.
Distributive numerals in Albanian
(AAB College, 2025-07-11) Rushiti, Bujar
This paper investigates nga-marked numerals in Albanian. They qualify as distributive numerals, since the presence of nga on the numeral yields a distributive reading of the sentences they belong to. Beyond their differences, most of the previous accounts rely on the hypothesis that distributive numerals introduce some kind of semantic feature, e.g. a covariation feature; an evaluation plurality requirement, also called a post-suppositional plurality requirement; or a distributivity force. Our main claim goes against this trend of thinking. We propose that distributive numerals do not carry any semantic feature but only a formal syntactic feature that needs to enter a syntactic dependency relation with a distributivity feature. The analysis is implemented in terms of Zeijlstra’s (2004) UPWARD AGREE.
Effects of Nationalism in Countries in Transition: Attitudes toward Nationalism in Political Culture
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Llunji, Venera
Nationalism represents a serious challenge for the countries in transition. It is a factor which immensely influences and shapes the transitional process in politics in all South-Eastern European countries. It represents a challenge for the post-communist countries especially for countries like the former republics of ex-Yugoslavia, since, as Robert Kaplan points out in his foreword chapter to the book Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History, “ in the Balkans, no wars are ‘local’ ”. 1Societies in Europe are experiencing remarkable changes especially in politics and economy through empowerment of their democratic political and economic systems. Nationalism and nationalist attitudes are present in political cultures in countries of transition despite efforts for implementing democracy, rapid changes and modernization of societies at institutional level and social structure and despite the newly established environment of these societies. Countries in transition borrowed the so-called ‘copy-paste’ action, and tried the implementation of such systems without considering the specifics of countries in transition which subsequently faced the variances, inadequacy and quite often the inability for the implementation of the latter. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on political culture of transitional countries, with a specific emphasis on Kosovo, covering nationalism and the process of democratization as a very important part of its political system and its political culture.
ENGLISH WORDS IN THE LEGAL TERMINOLOGY OF KOSOVO
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Ramadani, Fatmir
English language as the most widespread language in the world, is used as language of communication, technology, education by more people and for more purposes than any other language on Earth. English Language today is spoken all over the world and the nature of its easy transmission to the people through mass media makes it as the most accessible language on earth. Kosovo was rapidly part of these developments after the 1999. Every Kosovar is bilingual and many multilingual. They are rich in terms of languages spoken, due to the interaction with countries and cultures abroad and presence of many international institutions. Foreign languages influenced Albanian spoken language but also language of education, media and communication, particularly after the war in 1999, English language and words drastically influenced common spoken language as well as glossary of Kosovar legislation. This was done either by using intentionally English legal terminology into Kosovo legislation, or by continuing use of English words in official language and communication which resulted with words becoming integrated part of legal terminology. My long experience as Language Assistant in various international organizations in Kosovo, would be a great help to focus on English terminology that has entered into legal system of Kosovo, respectively legal linguistic terms that were borrowed by judges, prosecutors, lawyers, police officers, and other parties involved in legal proceedings in Kosovo.
ENGLISH-CONFLICTING FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LANGUAGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
(AAB College, 2025-07-16) Martinaj, Fitnete
The English language is considered the global business language and a mutual language to provide communication and understanding in business. Learning foreign languages and implementing language management strategies enable cross-cultural communication, business growth and career enhancement. Drawing on this theory of business communication, this study explores the effects of language proficiency in business operations of Kosovan small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which intend to become integrated globally, by using mixed methods and the interpretation of business managers (Sample 1, N = 5), two pilot tests (Sample 2, N = 7 and N = 29) and an online questionnaire (Sample 3, N = 139). The role of English in business communication was interrelated with an analysis of other foreign languages, along with the implementation of language strategies and the effect of language skills on career development. This squares well with the proposition that these three aspects are consistent in their contribution to effective communication in business and convey richness on both an individual and a company level. The findings offer a new perspective on the effects of using foreign languages in business communication, which consequently contributes to internationalization, multilingualism and cross-cultural communication.
Erotic, Sexual Words and Meanings in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in Albanian translation
(AAB College, 2025-07-14) Ramadani, Fatmir
The Albanian reading public had to wait for three hundred years to be introduced to the works of one of the greatest writers of English literature, William Shakespeare, in their mother tongue. The translation of Shakespeare’s works into Albanian started in the second decade of the 20th century. We distinguish three periods of the Albanian translation of Shakespeare’s plays. The fi rst phase, from 1915 to 1928, is known for the translation of Bishop Fan Noli, the head of Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Boston, USA. The second phase from 1955 until 1982, during the totalitarian regime world literature was strictly censored by communist propaganda, with only three offi cial translators of Shakespeare’s works, Skënder Luarasi, Vedat Kokona, and Alqi Kristo. Third period, from 1990 to the present, with an increasing number of translators of Shakespeare’s works, such as Refi k Kadĳ a, Perikli Jorgoni, Qezar Kurti, Mihal Hanxhari, Napolon Tasi, Pashko Gjeçi, Kristaq Traja etc. William Shakespeare has made frequent use of erotic and sexual words, meanings and connotations in his tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Most of them are missing in the fi rst Albanian translation. But the second translator has noted all of them in the footnotes of his translation. In this paper I will focus on these sexual and erotic words and references in the “Romeo and Juliet” and their translation in Albanian language by two translators, the fi rst translation of Alqi Kristo some 70 years ago, and the second translation by Refi k Kadĳ a in 2014. Political influences, evolution of Albanian language over the last decades, are some of the main reasons to suggest that Refi k Kadĳ a’s translation should be used as more complete and bett er translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy in Albanian language.