DSpace collection: 期刊論文

Narrating a Nation into Being: On Michael Ondaatje's Deviant Narrative Strategy in Running in the Family

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 04:05:22 GMT

title: Narrating a Nation into Being: On Michael Ondaatje's Deviant Narrative Strategy in Running in the Family abstract: Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family (1982) is often regarded as a fictionalized memoir or auto/biographical fiction that transcends generic conventions. The narrative voice in the book engages the reader by weaving together diverse stories related to Ondaatje's family history in Ceylon/Sri Lanka. The book records the life ("bios") of his people as much as it is invested in his gesture of fragmentary writing ("graphy"). As argued in the article, this latter effort by Ondaatje, embodied in his employment of episodic and sometimes incomplete narrative to reproduce the transient and meandering nature of recollection on both parts of himself and the others, questions the imperative of foregrounding manifest historical accounts in an immigrant writer's text, such as the British divide-and-rule policy in colonial Ceylon and the 1971 insurrection in postcolonial Sri Lanka. Ondaatje calls for a collective self-storytelling that coordinates the seemingly bifurcated personal and political aspects in such a way that the convergence of scandals, gossips, familial archives, and oneiric accounts enacts a dialogic performance. Ondaatje is both conscious of the unreachability of the truth from the outset and is conscientious about presenting the book as expressive of the Burgher people's communal achievement, which counterbalances the nationalist narrative of history dominated by the Sinhalese and the Tamil. Drawing on Homi Bhabha's discussion of nation and narration, this article suggests reading the memoir as inscribing an aesthetic creation of the narrative process on the histories of the multi-ethnic people in the writer's imaginary homeland.

(In)vulnerable Migrant Domestic Workers and the Gift Economy in Brett Michael Innes’ Rachel Weeping.

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 04:05:24 GMT

title: (In)vulnerable Migrant Domestic Workers and the Gift Economy in Brett Michael Innes’ Rachel Weeping. abstract: This paper explores migrant domestic workers' vulnerability in Brett Michael Innes's novel, Rachel Weeping. I first argue that Rachel's economic migration from Mozambique to South Africa is driven by a poverty-stricken life, leading her to enter the "global care chains" (Hochschild, "Global Care Chains" 130). Her anguish at being undervalued is not solely directed at her employers, the Jordaans, but also extends to the hierarchical structure within the domestic employment sector, and further reflects the broader issues of unequal development within the global economy. Second, drawing upon Arlie Russel Hochschild's concept of "the economy of gratitude," I argue that when the Jordaans convey their generosity to Rachel through multiple gifts, they anticipate an equivalent amount of emotional commitment in return. However, Rachel's detachment demonstrates that in this employment sector, genuine emotional bonds between employers and their employees will never form as long as class, racial, and economic disparities continue to overshadow the employment relationship.

〈後五一三的召靈書：賀淑芳《蛻》的記憶與言說〉

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:09:42 GMT

title: 〈後五一三的召靈書：賀淑芳《蛻》的記憶與言說〉 abstract: 馬來西亞華裔作家賀淑芳是五一三事件後出生的世代。悲劇發生以來，不少文藝創作者、歷史與文學研究者試圖透過言說作為行動，來揭開事件真相。一九六九年五月十三日這個日期已轉化為馬來西亞華社歷史與生活中的一個符碼，被政客用來操弄民眾恐懼、被作家與詩人轉為文字留下記憶、被導演與藝術家化為影像作品來重現創傷。五一三從本質上只是一個日期、一天，轉化成了有魂無體的幽靈，在不同人的視角下有不同的形體與故事。本文旨在指出，作為書寫五一三議題的小說，賀淑芳的長篇小說《蛻》以小說獨有的言說行為去反映後五一三時代的生活體驗，實則脫離不了五一三帶來的創傷。論文同時梳理小說如何透過虛構的記憶敘事，去和倖存者的訪談與華社對五一三集體記憶的認識交錯互現。

Introduction

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:09:31 GMT

title: Introduction abstract: In 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission Report on Planetary Health introduced “planetary health” as a critical framework for understanding the profound and multifaceted impacts of global environmental change—including climate disruption, ecological degradation, food insecurity, and the increasing spread of infectious diseases. These developments have sharpened awareness of the imminent risks facing human health, the fragility of the Earth’s life-support systems, and our shared responsibility to safeguard well-being in the Anthropocene. The report defines planetary health as “the achievement of the highest attainable standard of health, well-being, and equity worldwide through judicious attention to the human systems—political, economic, and social—that shape the future of humanity, and to the Earth’s natural systems that define the safe environmental limits within which humanity can flourish” (Whitmee et al. 1978). This definition articulates with compelling clarity the intrinsic interdependence between human health and the health of the planet. Works such as Samuel Myers and Howard Frumkin’s Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves, Richard Horton and Selina Lo’s “Planetary Health: A New Science for Exceptional Action,” and Pierre Horwitz and Margot W. Parkes’s “Intertwined Strands for Ecology in Planetary Health” further establish interdisciplinary frameworks that integrate ecological, political, and medical concerns. Their shared premise is unmistakable: the well-being of humanity is inseparable from the well-being of the Earth. In parallel, the World Health Organization’s “One Health” initiative (2017)—inspired by the work of Rudolf Virchow, Robert Koch, Louis Pasteur, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, among others—advances a holistic vision that situates human health within a web of microbial, environmental, socio-political, and ecological relations (Zinsstag et al. xvii). More recent works, including Heike Härting and Heather Meek’s edited volume Planetary Health Humanities and Pandemics and Andy Haines and Howard Frumkin’s Planetary Health: Safeguarding Human Health and the Environment in the Anthropocene, continue to expand this discourse, illuminating new intersections between environmental studies, medical humanities, and health humanities.

Stylometric Consistency Patterns in Translation of Spoken Chinese to Written English: A Corpus Analysis of the CoVoST Dataset

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 04:07:13 GMT

title: Stylometric Consistency Patterns in Translation of Spoken Chinese to Written English: A Corpus Analysis of the CoVoST Dataset abstract: This study examines stylometric consistency patterns in professional human translations of spoken Chinese to written English, using the CoVoST corpus. Moving beyond traditional translation quality assessment, the investigation studies how human translators navigate the speech-to-text modality shift and whether this process produces domain-invariant stylistic regularities. Through a framework combining stylometric analysis, machine learning, and digital humanities critique, I identify a “consistency bias” — manifested as standardized lexical diversity, flattened syntactic structures, and repetitive discourse patterns — that reveals how professional constraints and cognitive processing shape translation output. My analysis of 16,899 human-translated English sentences, with detailed statistical comparison of 300 sentences against contemporary spoken English baselines, demonstrates that speech-to-text translation exhibits significantly reduced lexical diversity (Cohen's d=0.34, p<0.001), shallower syntactic structures (d=0.33, p<0.001), and narrower modal verb usage (d=0.43, p<0.001) compared to original spoken English. These findings illuminate the cognitive and professional constraints shaping human translation practice; future research might consider how such patterns subsequently inform machine translation systems trained on human-translated corpora.

Hysterical Bodies and Hysterical Conditions: Sensation and Force in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 04:07:28 GMT

title: Hysterical Bodies and Hysterical Conditions: Sensation and Force in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories abstract: Hysteria, traditionally linked to mental illness and gendered social constructs, is redefined in this paper through the concepts of the hysterical body and hysterical condition. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze's analysis of the twentieth-century painter Francis Bacon in The Logic of Sensation, this paper offers a new perspective on hysteria, focusing not on its sociocultural or gendered dimensions but on its nature as an intense bodily experience. Hysteria, in this sense, is characterized by overwhelming forces and sensations that verge on the terrifying. It extends beyond the framework of mental disorder, manifesting instead as an intense force arising both internally and externally. The internal forces of the body reveal themselves through spontaneous physical reactions such as vertigo, convulsions, shuddering, spasms, vomiting, and screaming. External forces on the body, meanwhile, act like waves that flow through the body, provoking involuntary responses before conscious awareness can intervene. Poe's horror tales intricately depict these forces and their effects, offering a fertile ground for exploring the movements of sensation and hysteria within his narratives. The latter part of this paper delves into Poe's nuanced portrayal of forces and sensations in "Berenice" and "The Pit and the Pendulum," examining how these narratives vividly render the complexities of the hysterical body and the hysterical condition. By incorporating a Deleuzian perspective, the analysis illuminates how Poe's texts convey the transformation of "abjection into splendor" and the experience of life's horror as "a very pure and very intense life," thereby highlighting the aesthetic depth of hysteria in his works.

撓萬物者莫疾於風：反思「批判」

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 04:07:25 GMT

title: 撓萬物者莫疾於風：反思「批判」

From altar to autopsy table: ecological imaginaries, medical violence and parareligious affect in William Carlos Williams's 'The Use of Force' and Tess Gerritsen's The Surgeon

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 04:07:20 GMT

title: From altar to autopsy table: ecological imaginaries, medical violence and parareligious affect in William Carlos Williams's 'The Use of Force' and Tess Gerritsen's The Surgeon abstract: This article compares William Carlos Williams’s short story ‘The Use of Force’ (1938) and Tess Gerritsen’s novel The Surgeon (2001) to explore how biomedical care can slide into coercion and how clinical spaces oscillate between sanctuary and sacrilege. Building on Michel Foucault’s formulation of clinical vision, together with Julia Kristeva’s account of abjection and René Girard’s sacrificial theory, I propose a three-strand analytic—power/knowledge, Gothic embodiment and parareligious affect—supplemented by an ecoGothic perspective that scales clinical violence from flesh to environment. Through close reading, the essay shows how Williams’s intimate house call converts beneficent intention into brute force, while Gerritsen’s medical thriller grotesquely weaponises medical expertise: the gaze that sees also dominates, and instruments of cure—tongue depressor, spoon, scalpel—become ritual implements that breach bodily borders. Attending to gendered vulnerability and trauma poetics, the analysis situates Gerritsen’s femicidal surgeries within patriarchal control and foregrounds the counter-agency of Jane Rizzoli and Catherine Cordell. Placing a modernist vignette beside a 21st century medical thriller, the article maps both continuities and ruptures in the ontological, epistemic and ethical stakes of clinical authority, tracing how sacrificial logic, secular priesthood and toxic ecologies persist across periods. The contribution is twofold: to Gothic studies, by clarifying medicine’s parasacral volatility and its ecological imaginaries; and to bioethics and the medical humanities, by articulating a normative claim that only practices disciplined by consent, narrative reciprocity and institutional accountability can sustain the secular covenant of care. Otherwise, curative ritual hardens into authorised brutality, and knowledge is purchased through a sacrificial economy in which cura collapses into cruelty. Such findings refine debates on clinical paternalism, narrative ethics and trauma representation in literature.

The Eighteenth-Century Women's Economy and Property: Maternal Inheritance in Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 04:06:13 GMT

title: The Eighteenth-Century Women's Economy and Property: Maternal Inheritance in Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall abstract: Women in 18th-century England had limited economic means and property that could not be passed down. The laws and social customs of the time generally considered women to be relying on a male relative, father, brother or husband. This dependence put women at a considerable economic disadvantage, especially when it came to inheriting property. Mary Wollstonecraft once discussed the education and economic status of women at that time, believing that one of the plights of women was that family-focused female education prevented women from successfully obtaining financial resources outside the family. Regarding this issue, Sarah Scott, an English female novelist from the mid-eighteenth century, also elaborated on women's economic issues in her novels. Scott is a writer concerned with economics, including that of women and the notion of inheritance, whose utopian novel, the famous Millenium Hall (1762), also particularly addresses these issues. The novel is about a female community's management and economic problems. Millenium Hall tells of an idealistic community founded by six women who pool their resources and successfully establish a self-sustaining commune. This article interprets the community's structure under "Symbolic Order of the Maternal" of Luce Irigaray, which shows how women create an independent symbolic reality based on mutual aid and shared economic structures, thereby subverting male-dominated discourse. Moreover, the community's collective property management and democratic decision-making embody Nancy Fraser's "Redistributive Justice," addressing both material inequality and cultural recognition by fostering inclusivity and dignity for all members. The novel thematically probes diverse economic avenues for women, such as inheritance, marriage, personal skills, and vital community mutual aid. The novel also develops the crucial concept of "maternal inheritance," which extends beyond economic transfer to encompass the transmission of virtues and exceptional abilities, thereby reinterpreting women's historical narratives. By exploring a range of mother-daughter relationships, Scott demonstrates how daughters can reclaim and revise their mothers' pasts, challenging societal stereotypes and positioning women as active historical agents who shape history. 在十八世紀的英國，女性的經濟地位和財產繼承權是受到嚴重限制的。當時的法律和社會習俗普遍認為女性應該依賴男性親屬，無論是父親、兄弟還是丈夫。這種依賴性使得女性在經濟上處於極大的劣勢，尤其是在財產繼承方面。瑪麗．沃斯通克拉夫特曾對當時女性教育和經濟狀況作出論述，認為女性困境之一是側重家庭的女性教育讓女性無法順利獲得家庭以外的經濟來源。對此議題，同為十八世紀中葉的英國小說家也在其小說中闡述女性經濟的議題。這些女性經濟和繼承的議題也出現在知名的英國小說家莎拉．史考特的知名烏托邦小說中，《千禧大廳及鄰近鄉村的描述》（1762）探討了女性社區的經營和經濟問題。《千禧大廳》小說描繪了一個由六位女性創立的烏托邦式社區，透過合併她們的財產，創建了一個自給自足的社區。本文透過露絲．伊瑞葛萊的「母性象徵秩序」來詮釋該社群的結構，展示女性如何透過互助與共享經濟結構，創造出獨立的象徵性現實，進而顛覆男性主導的話語權。此外，該社群的集體財產管理與民主決策體現了南希．弗雷澤的「再分配正義」，透過促進所有成員的包容性與尊嚴，同時解決了物質不平等與文化認同的問題。小說也探討了女性多元的經濟途徑，包括繼承、婚姻個人技能與工作，以及重要的社群互助與慈善援助。小說亦發展「母性繼承」的關鍵概念，超越單純的經濟財產轉移，進而涵蓋美德與卓越能力的傳承，重新詮釋女性的歷史敘事。透過不同的母女關係，史考特呈現女兒角色如何重塑與修正其母親的過去，挑戰社會刻板印象，並將女性定位為塑造歷史的積極歷史主體。

Archaeology as cultural translation: Unearthing and interpreting the artifacts of the long-lost

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 04:05:43 GMT

title: Archaeology as cultural translation: Unearthing and interpreting the artifacts of the long-lost

Narrating a Nation into Being: On Michael Ondaatje's Deviant Narrative Strategy in Running in the Family

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 04:05:10 GMT

title: Narrating a Nation into Being: On Michael Ondaatje's Deviant Narrative Strategy in Running in the Family abstract: Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family (1982) is often regarded as a fictionalized memoir or auto/biographical fiction that transcends generic conventions. The narrative voice in the book engages the reader by weaving together diverse stories related to Ondaatje’s family history in Ceylon/Sri Lanka. The book records the life (“bios”) of his people as much as it is invested in his gesture of fragmentary writing (“graphy”). As argued in the article, this latter effort by Ondaatje, embodied in his employment of episodic and sometimes incomplete narrative to reproduce the transient and meandering nature of recollection on both parts of himself and the others, questions the imperative of foregrounding manifest historical accounts in an immigrant writer’s text, such as the British divide-and-rule policy in colonial Ceylon and the 1971 insurrection in postcolonial Sri Lanka. Ondaatje calls for a collective self-storytelling that coordinates the seemingly bifurcated personal and political aspects in a way that the convergence of scandals, gossips, familial archives, and oneiric accounts enacts a dialogic performance. Ondaatje is both conscious of the unreachability of the truth from the outset and is conscientious about presenting the book as expressive of the Burgher people’s communal achievement, which counterbalances the nationalist narrative of history dominated by the Sinhalese and the Tamil. Drawing on Homi Bhabha’s discussion of nation and narration, this article suggests reading the memoir as inscribing an aesthetic creation of the narrative process on the histories of the multi-ethnic people in the writer’s imaginary homeland.

Measuring Interpreting Learners' Cognitive Skills: Scale Validation Using Structural Equation Modeling

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 06:38:06 GMT

title: Measuring Interpreting Learners' Cognitive Skills: Scale Validation Using Structural Equation Modeling abstract: This study focuses on constructing and confirming the reliability of a scale that integrates four key constructs from educational psychology, which are integral to interpreter training. This effort contributes to the niche of "metacognitive interpreter studies" and illustrates the beneficial use of structural equation modeling (SEM) within the realm of Interpreting Studies. A survey served as the primary tool for data collection, with 299 university students, native in Chinese and proficient in English as a second language, from various Chinese-speaking regions, participating voluntarily. The SEM analysis substantiated the scale's validity and reliability. The findings suggest that the scale is a promising tool for assessing how interpreting learners in higher education institutions utilize skills related to the four educational psychology constructs. The research also demonstrates the effective application of SEM in the field of Interpreting Studies.

Translating the Exotic through Centuries: Cultural Memory and the Heritage Translation of A Record of the Customs of Zhenla

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 04:07:18 GMT

title: Translating the Exotic through Centuries: Cultural Memory and the Heritage Translation of A Record of the Customs of Zhenla

Translation directionality and the Inhibitory Control Model: a machine learning approach to an eye-tracking study

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 04:07:16 GMT

title: Translation directionality and the Inhibitory Control Model: a machine learning approach to an eye-tracking study abstract: Based on such physiological data as pupillometry collected in an eye-tracking experiment, the study has further confirmed the effect of directionality on cognitive loads during L1 and L2 textual translations by novice translators, a phenomenon called “translation asymmetry” suggested by the Inhibitory Control Model, while revealing that machine learning-based approaches can be usefully applied to the field of Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies.

Gnostic Philosophy in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 04:06:53 GMT

title: Gnostic Philosophy in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” abstract: Critics have noticed in the House of Usher, a disintegrating Gothic-style house in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a force of evil that brings decadence and dissipation to the house and those who live in it. Some critics carry out this analysis in terms of psychoanalysis. In this, the dark, mist-wreathed House of Usher is compared to “a kind of dream or psychological journey” (Peeples). Some do so with a positive view of the dim interior of the House of Usher: in this, death and destruction are related to the idea of God’s will of destruction (Drain). In the essay I examine the dark psyche of the protagonist—his suicidal inclinations—structured as a reclusive world of self-destruction. For further discussion on destruction, I read the House of Usher in terms of Eureka and Gnostic philosophy

Translating Expert Connoisseurship of Digital Ink: Aesthetic Appraisal of AI-Generated Calligraphy by Gen-AI e-Pen

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 04:06:51 GMT

title: Translating Expert Connoisseurship of Digital Ink: Aesthetic Appraisal of AI-Generated Calligraphy by Gen-AI e-Pen abstract: Grounded in the new paradigm of 'transtantiation' in Translation Studies, in combination with the 'psycho-historical framework for the science of art appreciation' in the field of Empirical Aesthetics, it is suggested that aesthetic appreciation inherently requires a historico-cultural understanding. A total of 30 expert calligraphers and 54 non-calligraphers used a 6-point semantic differential scale with 15 paired bipolar word-level adjectival descriptors (15 dimensions) regarding three main components (3 components) relating to digital regular script Chinese calligraphy developed by prior research and rated two groups of six digital Chinese calligraphic characters (one authored by an expert calligrapher and the other by a non-expert) generated by Gen-AI e-Pen. Two-way ANOVA results have revealed statistically significant connoisseurship in calligraphers' ratings, in comparison to non-calligraphers', with respect to such four dimensions as (1) Stable Strokes - Shaky Strokes (SS); (2) Even Space Layout - Uneven Space Layout (SL); (3) Paper-Penetrating Stroke Force - Weak Stroke Force (SF); and (4) Outward Open Structure - Crowded Structure (SC). Concurrently, the results have shown marginal significant expert connoisseurship in calligraphers' ratings, with respect to such other two dimensions as (1) Powerful Starting Stroke - Weak Starting Stroke (ST); and (2) Tight Center Core - Loose Center Core (CC), where digital regular script calligraphy is concerned. The study has therefore (a) further confirmed the effect of expertise on aesthetic appraisal of digital regular script Chinese calligraphy; (b) furnished evidence for expert connoisseurship in association with aesthetic appraisal of digital regular script Chinese calligraphy generated by Gen-AI e-Pen; and (c) revealed significant historic-cultural elements that may potentially contribute to the expert connoisseurship for distinguishing the finer details and nuances in digital calligraphic appraisal.

Exploring Ecogothic Paradoxes: The Southern Swamp in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 04:05:39 GMT

title: Exploring Ecogothic Paradoxes: The Southern Swamp in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire abstract: Ecogothic literature, a fusion of ecocriticism and Gothic elements, interrogates humanity's darker perceptions of the natural world, to scrutinize and dismantle our more sinister environmental visions; ecogothic bridges ecological anxieties with Gothic horror. As Andrew Smith and William Hughes explicate in Ecogothic (2013), the Gothic genre adeptly portrays and articulates these eco-anxieties (5). The confluence of Gothic horror and ecological critique expounds latent fears regarding environmental degradation and humanity's precarious relationship with nature. This literary approach exposes underlying anxieties tied to environmental disruption while critiquing humanity's often adversarial stance towards nature. It highlights the fragility of our ecological systems and the grave consequences of their destabilization. The interrelation and conflict between humanity and nature implicate the paradox in our ecological interactions. Employing ecogothic perspectives, this paper examines the swamp in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, divulging the symbolic representation of the contentious relationship between nature and humanity. This analysis emphasizes how the swamp's menacing presence reflects the ecological anxieties to the narrative, mirroring humanity's fear of the untamed and uncontrollable aspects of nature. The entwined relationship between human and natural elements in the narrative magnifies the conflicts in their coexistence, illustrating the ongoing struggle between human attempts to dominate nature and nature's resistance to such control. The swamp, as a threshold space, mirrors the transitional beings- vampires-who inhabit it, reflecting their internal conflicts and implying the blurred boundaries involving control and the untamed forces of nature, a paradox of creation and destruction.

帝國、照護政治和疾病隱喻：論莫拉利斯《布娃娃瘟疫》中的夢娜病毒、愛滋病和藍色剋星

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 04:05:20 GMT

title: 帝國、照護政治和疾病隱喻：論莫拉利斯《布娃娃瘟疫》中的夢娜病毒、愛滋病和藍色剋星 abstract: 《布娃娃瘟疫》是一部有關醫學的推想小說，探索歷史、醫學、殖民、環境和醫療歧視的議題。小說分為三卷，場景發生在三個不同的地方：（一）十八世紀西班牙帝國統治下的墨西哥市（Mexico City）、（二）二十世紀七○年代的加州橘郡（Orange County）的德里（Delhi），以及（三）2050 年未來的聯合城（Lamex），而且主要敘述者皆為葛利果（Gregorio）或格利高里醫師（Doctor Gregory）。在第一卷中，葛利果受到帝國徵召，前往墨西哥市治療「夢娜瘟疫」，俗稱「布娃娃瘟疫」。葛利果是西班牙皇家醫療和醫藥董事會的主任，同情底層階級，最後選擇「再棲居」美洲新大陸。第二卷剖析敘述者格利高里（Gregory）的女友因輸血之故，感染「人類免疫缺乏病毒」（HIV）而飽受醫療歧視與汙名化的創傷。第三卷發生於未來的後國家社會，描述拉美醫療走廊的主任暨醫學生物環境遺傳學專家格利高里醫師與助理佳比（Gabi Chung）醫治「藍色剋星」（Blue Buster）病患，並找尋病毒解方。本文嘗試以環境醫療人文的視角重審墨裔美國小說家莫拉利斯瘟疫論述中的帝國、瘟疫、環境污染、健康、公衛危機、照護政治、疾病隱喻和生命政治之間的關係。論文分為五個部分：（一）導論；（二）夢娜病毒：帝國、獵巫和照護倫理學；（三）愛滋病：醫療歧視、污名化和疾病隱喻；（四）藍色剋星：危脆性與環境歧視；（五）結論。在結論中，我特別指出環境健康和身體健康的鑲嵌性、纏繞性和共構性。

The Road Not Taken: Second Language Learners' Strategy Aspirations

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 04:05:11 GMT

title: The Road Not Taken: Second Language Learners' Strategy Aspirations abstract: This study explored the language learning strategies (LLS) that university EFL students wanted to try after receiving structured strategy instruction. A total of 57 participants provided written responses, which were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that a significant number of students showed a preference for affective strategies, highlighting the importance of managing emotions, attitudes, and motivation in the language learning process. Amongst those who identified more specific strategies, a majority of participants expressed a strong interest in keeping a language learning journal. This strategy was perceived as a valuable tool for managing emotions, tracking progress, recording learning experiences, and fostering reflection, ultimately enhancing their language acquisition journey. The results underscore the pivotal role of affective strategies in facilitating more effective and positive learning experiences, while also suggesting that LLS instruction may foster self-awareness, encouraging students to consider adopting new strategies that support their language learning.

Taiwan in Critical Plant Studies

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 04:05:12 GMT

title: Taiwan in Critical Plant Studies

Exploring language assessment literacy and needs of English teachers at senior high school level.

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 04:06:30 GMT

title: Exploring language assessment literacy and needs of English teachers at senior high school level. abstract: This study explored the language assessment literacy (LAL) level and language testing and assessment (LTA) needs of 57 English teachers at senior high school level in Taiwan. An LAL test, three quantitative questionnaires and a qualitative survey were administered, conveying the overall LAL level and LTA needs of the participants. The qualitative survey then elicited their perceptions of and perspectives on classroom-based assessments and national high-stakes tests with regard to a newly implemented national curriculum (i.e., 108-Curriculum). The results show that the teachers lack adequate LAL to varying degrees, depending on their demographic background. Additionally, the participants identified some assessment topics, from large standardized testing to applying test results. They also reported their greatest training needs: providing feedback, finding teaching content, and assessing integrated skills. The teachers’ qualitative accounts generated five themes, from education in testing and assessment as a useful tool to the gap between classroom-based assessments and the national tests. The results not only refine assessment modules in the teacher education programme but suggest a direction for the assessment training of English teachers. The study concludes by suggesting future LAL investigations in the English-teaching context of Taiwan or wider international communities.

The evolutionary course of mathematics literary writings: A case study

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 04:06:28 GMT

title: The evolutionary course of mathematics literary writings: A case study abstract: Attention to the disconnection between culture and mathematics has been addressed then and now (Wilder (in: Graves et al., Proceedings of the international congress of mathematicians, American Mathematical Society, 1950; Liu in Taiwan Journal of Mathematics Education, 8:79–88, 2021b). Recently, studies, workshops, and contests about an approach to relating culture and mathematics, such as incorporating mathematics history or mathematics writings in class, have emerged. However, although the effectiveness of such an approach was proved, employing it as instruction was still significantly ignored, not to mention the approach to creating mathematics literary writings—the goal that the Mathematics-Literature Contest aimed to achieve. Additionally, no empirical studies have systematically assessed the contest, especially from the cultural perspective. Through teachers’ and students’ perceptions, this qualitative case study aims to examine the impact of mathematics literary writings on the development of mathematics teaching/learning and the mathematics culture represented in the contest. Ten teachers and 20 students were interviewed. Data were analyzed by following Yin’s five phases (2016). The study visualizes an evolutionary model of the contest, signifying the development of mathematics culture simultaneously. Results demonstrated that the contest caused teachers and students, who constituted the internal force, to consolidate the mathematics culture, which was enriched by the external force—to reinterpret the connection between mathematics as well as culture and the reform of general education. The developed mathematics culture included elements other than mathematics, such as the Chinese writings and their interactions with mathematics and life experiences. The findings hold implications for mathematics and general education: An interdisciplinary curriculum design can help cultivate teachers’ and students’ intellectual acumen; higher education communities worldwide must follow the trend.

Using online English learning resources: utilitarian and hedonic perspectives

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 04:05:21 GMT

title: Using online English learning resources: utilitarian and hedonic perspectives

Enhancing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners’ Writing with ChatGPT: A University-Level Course Design

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 04:05:18 GMT

title: Enhancing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners’ Writing with ChatGPT: A University-Level Course Design abstract: This research explores the innovative integration of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 within a university-level English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing course, illustrating a novel approach to academic instruction. The course follows the ADDIE instructional design model, encompassing five systematic stages: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. This model serves as the backbone of the course structure, ensuring a comprehensive educational experience. The incorporation of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework in this course facilitates the effective integration of GPT-3.5 by enabling instructors to align advanced AI capabilities with appropriate pedagogical strategies, thereby enhancing the learning experience. TPACK guides educators in applying GPT-3.5’s features in a manner that is contextually relevant and pedagogically sound, ensuring the technology’s use complements the course content. The findings from this research are significant. They reveal that GPT-3.5 addresses three fundamental challenges often encountered in academic writing courses. Firstly, it enhances efficiency by providing immediate feedback and generating content ideas, accelerating the writing process. Secondly, GPT-3.5 ensures cohesive organization within students’ writing, guiding them to structure their thoughts more logically. Lastly, it serves as a reliable substitute for traditional peer reviewers, offering critical and objective feedback that students can use to refine their drafts. As students engage with AI, they enter a dynamic partnership. This collaboration with GPT-3.5 fosters critical thinking and empowers students to develop a distinctive writing voice. Through this interaction, students are not merely passive recipients of knowledge but active participants in a learning process that is augmented by cutting-edge technology. This study not only provides insight into the potential of AI-augmented academic writing but also highlights GPT-3.5’s role in promoting writing proficiency. It demonstrates that the application of AI in education can enhance the learning experience without compromising the individuality of student expression.

Impacts of ChatGPT-assisted writing for EFL English majors: Feasibility and challenges

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 01:31:04 GMT

title: Impacts of ChatGPT-assisted writing for EFL English majors: Feasibility and challenges abstract: To determine the impacts of using ChatGPT to assist English as a foreign language (EFL) English college majors in revising essays and the possibility of leading to higher scores and potentially causing unfairness. A prospective, double-blinded, paired-comparison study was conducted in Feb. 2023. A total of 44 students provided 44 original essays and 44 ChatGPT-assisted revised essays, which were rated by two independent graders in a randomized and crossover fashion to minimize grading bias. The original and revision scores were paired for before-after comparison. Eight control essays were also rated by both graders to ensure inter-rater reliability. This study used a rigorous experimental design to confirm that ChatGPT-assisted revised essays led to significantly higher scores for EFL college English majors. Significant improvements were observed in all four dimensions of writing quality assessment, with the largest effects observed in vocabulary, followed by grammar, organization, and content. ChatGPT-assisted revised essays shifted the score curve from a normal distribution to a skewed distribution towards higher grades, with the greatest increase in revision scores seen among students who had lower original scores. This disproportionate improvement raises concerns about fairness in evaluation. The findings suggest that ChatGPT is effective in providing timely feedback to EFL English majors in an affordable manner, but it also highlights the potential for unfairness in writing evaluation. We should note that ChatGPT-assisted revisions do not reveal learners’ writing competence. Therefore, new forms of writing performance assessment should be implemented in EFL composition classes in this AI era.

Ambivalence and Ambiguity: Truths Veiled and Truths Revealed in Euripides’ Hippolytus

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 01:31:03 GMT

title: Ambivalence and Ambiguity: Truths Veiled and Truths Revealed in Euripides’ Hippolytus abstract: The term parrhesia originates in Euripides' Greek tragedies. In Fearless Speech, Foucault systematically explores the critical meaning of parrhesia as a verbal commitment of truth-telling comprising five essentially core elements: frankness, truth, criticism, obligation, and, in the utmost form, without regard for risk-taking. He pointedly identifies the concept as not simply a rhetorical truth game demanding courage but as a profound moral stance. This paper aims to analyze the distinctly vital features of parrhesia in both personal and ancient Greek political contexts, focusing on the word's meticulous applications to the occurrences of parrhesiastic enunciation by key characters in Hippolytus; moreover, this article also demonstrates how Euripides brilliantly imbues this tragedy with the unified thematic points: the enigmatic ambivalence of truth-revealing and truth-hiding, highlighting the representation of the ambiguous interplay between truth and falsehood.

Language learning strategies used by EFL students: Does their digital fluency matter?

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 01:31:01 GMT

title: Language learning strategies used by EFL students: Does their digital fluency matter? abstract: Major advances have been made in understanding language learning strategies (LLS). However, rapid changes in human interaction induced by the internet and web 2.0 warrant a re-assessment of LLS in today’s context, especially vis-à-vis digital nativeness. Therefore, a large-scale quantitative investigation involving 891 college students was conducted. Their LLS use patterns and frequency and their level of digital fluency were examined using two instruments: Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and Teo’s Digital Natives Assessment Scale (DNAS). The participants reported moderate usage of all the strategies described in SILL. However, they reported using specific SILL categories (compensation, memory, and metacognitive) more frequently than others (social, cognitive, and affective). Participants with different levels of digital fluency showed significant variations in the frequency of use of LLS. Additionally, compared to previous generations, these modern participants adopted different usage patterns.

Exploring language assessment literacy and needs of English teachers at senior high school level

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 01:30:59 GMT

title: Exploring language assessment literacy and needs of English teachers at senior high school level abstract: This study explored the language assessment literacy (LAL) level and language testing and assessment (LTA) needs of 57 English teachers at senior high school level in Taiwan. An LAL test, three quantitative questionnaires and a qualitative survey were administered, conveying the overall LAL level and LTA needs of the participants. The qualitative survey then elicited their perceptions of and perspectives on classroom-based assessments and national high-stakes tests with regard to a newly implemented national curriculum (i.e., 108-Curriculum). The results show that the teachers lack adequate LAL to varying degrees, depending on their demographic background. Additionally, the participants identified some assessment topics, from large standardized testing to applying test results. They also reported their greatest training needs: providing feedback, finding teaching content, and assessing integrated skills. The teachers’ qualitative accounts generated five themes, from education in testing and assessment as a useful tool to the gap between classroom-based assessments and the national tests. The results not only refine assessment modules in the teacher education programme but suggest a direction for the assessment training of English teachers. The study concludes by suggesting future LAL investigations in the English-teaching context of Taiwan or wider international communities.

弁言: 生物學與（後）人文研究：生命、醫療和環境想像

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 01:30:57 GMT

title: 弁言: 生物學與（後）人文研究：生命、醫療和環境想像

"England was simply a world": George Lamming's The Emigrants as Cultural Decolonization

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 01:30:56 GMT

title: "England was simply a world": George Lamming's The Emigrants as Cultural Decolonization abstract: While the significance of George Lamming's second novel The Emigrants (1954) as a ground-breaking work of Black British literature is widely acknowledged, my essay re-examines the novel as a serious exploration of the possibility of cultural decolonization for West Indians. In particular, I consider the implications of the psychological turmoil of some characters after their arrival in England, as well as the connections between the different phases of their emigration. The emigrants' voyage destabilizes their worldview and allows them to start forming a West Indian identity, which Lamming deems a crucial starting point for cultural decolonization. Yet their collective psychological strain, which partly results from their shocking encounter with racism in England, reveals that internalized colonial values still deeply condition their mindsets and obstruct further development of cultural decolonization. The novel's ending, however, subtly points to the emergence of a new solidarity based on a clearer understanding of the cultural conditioning in question. In highlighting both a certain degree of liberation of the mind and the enormous difficulty in achieving it, The Emigrants elaborates a torturous yet crucial stage of cultural decolonization.

Seeing/Scene-ing Imagination in Virginia Woolf’s “Nurse Lugton’s Curtain”

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 01:30:54 GMT

title: Seeing/Scene-ing Imagination in Virginia Woolf’s “Nurse Lugton’s Curtain” abstract: This paper argues that Sir Thomas Browne’s ruminations on the dialectics between life and death, wakefulness and sleep in his books might have influenced Virginia Woolf when she wrote the “Nurse Lugton’s Curtain.” This short story might not be as playful and hedonistic as it seems. On closer scrutiny, it oscillates between life and death, wakefulness and sleep, and reminds us how rare it is when imagination, incarnated as animals in the story, is present, since most of the time humans are either blind to it or have killed it already. Lugton might be blind to her imagination, but Woolf’s writing skill, free indirect discourse and her capacity for scene-making, render her imagination vivid by concealing any human-centered perspectives in the text and by presenting scenes in which the reader can perceive the route that the animals take, which is also the trail that the imagination treads. Without any quotation marks to solidify the speaking subject, the reader can immerse themselves into the consciousness of the text (hence free), but the scenes are still made present through a textual perspective that Woolf embeds in the story (hence indirect). Her engagement with different writing techniques unremittingly reminds us how elusive and slippery imagination is, and artists’ works, e.g., “Nurse Lugton’s Curtain” and Nurse Lugton’s curtain, are (futile) human endeavors to capture it.

Investigating Dayue: An LFG-OT approach to its subcategorization and structure

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 05:39:18 GMT

title: Investigating Dayue: An LFG-OT approach to its subcategorization and structure abstract: This paper investigates the subcategorization and structure of dayue, taking a Lexical Functional Grammar–Optimality Theory (LFG-OT) approach to account for the different uses of this word. It argues that dayue can be identified in the category of either an adverb or a preposition, depending on the function it takes and the structure it has. As an adverb, dayue modifies the clausal element or the quantifier phrase directly following it. As a preposition, dayue takes a noun phrase (NP) or an adpositional phrase as the complement, occurring in the adjunctive position. There may be ambiguities due to the subcategorization of, and the argument structure associated with, dayue, which result in the same linguistic form being generated as optimal outputs for different input meanings. However, each can be argued to correspond to a different c-structure. An LFG-OT approach is adopted in this paper to account for the structure of dayue. LFG proposes different levels of representation, and OT is involved in the theoretical model by evaluating linguistic forms according to the interaction and ranking of different kinds of linguistic constraints. Faithfulness constraints ensure faithful mappings among the lexical, functional, and syntactic levels of representation. Markedness constraints require linguistic structures to be well formed. Economy constraints pursue a concise, efficient way of expression. Alignment constraints map arguments with constituent structures.
description: 連結 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/940611

Measuring Interpreting Learners' Cognitive Skills: Scale Validation Using Structural Equation Modeling

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 04:05:18 GMT

title: Measuring Interpreting Learners' Cognitive Skills: Scale Validation Using Structural Equation Modeling abstract: This study focuses on constructing and confirming the reliability of a scale that integrates four key constructs from educational psychology, which are integral to interpreter training. This effort contributes to the niche of “metacognitive interpreter studies” and illustrates the beneficial use of structural equation modeling (SEM) within the realm of Interpreting Studies. A survey served as the primary tool for data collection, with 299 university students, native in Chinese and proficient in English as a second language, from various Chinese-speaking regions, participating voluntarily. The SEM analysis substantiated the scale’s validity and reliability. The findings suggest that the scale is a promising tool for assessing how interpreting learners in higher education institutions utilize skills related to the four educational psychology constructs. The research also demonstrates the effective application of SEM in the field of Interpreting Studies.

Longing for a Home and the Role of Women in Louis L'Amour's Narratives

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 04:05:28 GMT

title: Longing for a Home and the Role of Women in Louis L'Amour's Narratives abstract: This research explores relationships between Louis L'Amour's literary works and the Frontier Thesis, which defined the impact of the American frontier on national character and identity. The central theme of L’Amour’s literature is rugged individualism. This is described in some detail, analyzing how it is portrayed in his selected works. Primary focus is given to the longing for a home—a recurring but overlooked theme in L'Amour's narratives. By extension, the role of women in L'Amour's writings is highlighted. Women are depicted as crucial in the establishment of homes and communities on the frontier. Strong female characters in L'Amour's works embody the essence of homemaking and resilience on the frontier. Analysis of representative works by L'Amour show how the themes of rugged individualism, the longing for a home, and the role of women are woven together. A conclusion summarizes the key findings and discusses implications for understanding the American frontier experience through literature.

（不）受弱的女人：柯慈《屈辱》中的性暴力、法律與南非新自由主義

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 04:10:17 GMT

title: （不）受弱的女人：柯慈《屈辱》中的性暴力、法律與南非新自由主義 abstract: 本論文以巴特勒的受弱力理論開始，探討《屈辱》中的兩場性侵以及女性在性侵中是否有除了性受害之外的受弱性。梅蘭妮經歷權勢性侵卻被消音、主體性被抹除，成為性侵中完全受弱的性受害者。此外，我們既心疼遭受性侵的露西，卻也佩服她所展現因受而弱的能動力。她不讓任何人定義她所經歷的一切，也只有她能夠實踐她心目中的正義；在法律懸置與其暴力被暴露之際，她才得以訴說自己的想法、決定自己的未來。《屈辱》亦反映了南非在新自由主義經濟政策的推行下，危命的不平等分配亦加惡化的事實－性別暴力、階級分化與種族間的緊張關係，成為法律所遮掩或視而不見的真相，也造就了在種族隔離制度結束之後，以暴力取代暴力的惡性循環。露西遭受的性暴力提醒我們：正義無法透過法律實踐，亦無法透過暴力報復取得，想要跳脫法律與暴力的共生關係，唯有揭露法律的暴力並將暴力的法律懸置，透過女性受弱的生命經驗／創傷，展現女性的主體性。

A move analysis of Chinese L2 student essays from the sociocognitive perspective: Genres, languages, and writing quality.

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 04:05:30 GMT

title: A move analysis of Chinese L2 student essays from the sociocognitive perspective: Genres, languages, and writing quality. abstract: Academic writing can be laborious for Chinese L2 undergraduates, not to mention that assessing their work is challenging and complex. While the linguistic features of Chinese undergraduate writing have been reidentified to be different in recent studies, experimental research on move analysis through the lens of contrastive rhetoric offers insights of Chinese students’ approaches to fulfilling the rhetorical requirements in writing. From the sociocognitive perspective, this study investigated Chinese students’ essays across genres and languages, focusing on moves/steps in introductions and their relation to essay quality. 264 essays by L2 novice writers were statistically analyzed. Results reveal that most participants’ writings gradually adopted elements of English academic writing, but they hybridly structured essays across genres and languages. Only 25.7% of the essays contained the three primary moves necessary for introductions and received the highest scores. Irrespective of language or genre, 80.3% stated essay’s purpose in introductions, but 19.7% did not. More than one-third of the participants began narrative essays with extensive descriptions of topic background, a feature of Chinese writing; such an opening strategy led to the essays not academically valued, especially when thesis and gap were not identified. The research findings hold implications for academic writing teaching and assessment.

Wild Dogs and Decolonisation: Ivan Sen's Mystery Road and Omar Musa's Here Come the Dogs

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 04:06:18 GMT

title: Wild Dogs and Decolonisation: Ivan Sen's Mystery Road and Omar Musa's Here Come the Dogs abstract: The broad subject of First Nations and decolonial perspectives on animal flourishing is addressed in this paper in a reading of references to canids in Mystery Road (2013), a film by the First Nations-Australian director, Ivan Sen, and Here Come the Dogs (2014), a novel by the Malaysian-Australian author Omar Musa. Dingoes and other wild dogs are a prominent trope in Sen’s film and tie to seemingly perdurable debates about the rights of these animals to flourish in Australia. Dingo advocates argue that dingoes are endemic to Australia, are Australia’s oldest introduced animals, and are a top predator species and so critical to the sustainability of many ecosystems across the length and breadth of Australia. In light of this argument, Australia’s biosecurity laws betray dingoes. The Act lists these animals as being pests, and therefore as animals that can be and should be eradicated. Dingo advocates point out also that what is threatening dingoes today more than the humans abiding by and enacting Australia’s biosecurity laws are other wild dogs – descendants of canids who were brought to Australia between 1788 and today and are mixing with dingoes and diluting the so-called dingo gene pool. Sen’s film discernibly engages with both of these arguments, and it does so in a way that resonates with animal studies scholar Fiona Probyn-Rapsey’s critique of the so-called ‘hybridity equals extinction’ argument. Canids also appear in Omar Musa’s novel in the figure of a lone critter, Mercury Fire, an animal discarded by the greyhound racing industry. The novel draws attention to this multi-billion-dollar gambling and animal entertainment industry and to the parallels between the dogs that the industry exploits and others of Australia’s ‘underdog’ populations, who face formidable race, class, and ethnic barriers. These barriers compare with the speciesist barricades that Australia’s wild dogs and many other dogs inclusive of greyhound racing industry dogs face as they strive to flourish.

Metal Cultures, Ecocriticism, Decolonization, and Tara June Winch’s The Yield

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 04:06:16 GMT

title: Metal Cultures, Ecocriticism, Decolonization, and Tara June Winch’s The Yield abstract: The late arrival of ecocriticism in literary studies in the 1970s attests to what seems to have meant hardly anything at all to literary studies scholars since the birth of literary theory and criticism. What mattered had to be, at the very least, human, or a set of human interests that effectively debased the environment. Ecocriticism, established less than half a century ago, has made inroads on the speaking up for the rights of autonomy of other than human beings in literary studies contexts, and for the entanglement of human and other than human rights in those same contexts. Its success, however, has been mottled, and judging from the severity of environmental collapse it has not achieved anything close to what its earliest champions hoped for. The discipline persists, nonetheless, in scholars’ efforts to address environmental apocalypse. This article is part of those efforts: it provides a brief summary of the fifty-year history of ecocriticism and illustrates two major turns in ecocriticism in the last ten years, the material and the decolonial turns, by way of illustration of a discussion of Tara June Winch’s The Yield (2019). The novel functions as an implicit indictment of the resource extraction industry in Australian in the neocolonial period, and so it ties to and evokes arguments made by ecocriticism, postcolonial ecocriticism, and colonial-settler studies scholars about the role that resource extraction is playing in environmental carnage.

Creator of Value, Establisher of Vital Norms: Georges Canguilhem's Philosophy of the Life Sciences

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 04:06:02 GMT

title: Creator of Value, Establisher of Vital Norms: Georges Canguilhem's Philosophy of the Life Sciences abstract: This paper begins with an examination of a genealogy of philosophical reflections on health and illness from Friedrich Nietzsche to Georges Canguilhem and Gilles Deleuze. While Nietzsche's inspiration to Deleuze has been widely acknowledged, little attention has been paid to how Canguilhem's philosophy of the life sciences follows Nietzsche and later affects Deleuze. Canguilhem claims that health is one's feeling of confidence in life; health is when a living being feels it creates values and establishes its own vital norms. The notion of individuality plays a significant role in Canguilhem's philosophy of the life sciences. Individuality is not only constituted by a living being who determines how to react; for Canguilhem, individuality refers to a living being as well as its relation to the milieu. An individual is not pre-given; instead, in selecting and responding to its milieu, it is individuated. Understood in a biological sense, the individual, when creating a norm, makes a judgment based on feeling. While a norm is created, the assessment is where values are posited. For Canguilhem, to live is to evaluate, to seek the sense of the organism's choice. Hence the notion of individuality is considered as an axiological rather than an ontological one. This paper is composed of three parts: the living and its milieu, individuality and valuation, and Canguilhem and contemporary medical issues. I intend to examine why and how Canguilhem's notion of individuality is tied to value judgements, what influence Nietzsche has on Canguilhem, and how Canguilhem's thoughtful ideas of individuality can help us critically reflect on contemporary debates about personalized medicine.

An Investigation of the Effects of EFL Students’ Self-efficacy in an Asynchronous Online Course with Interactive Contents

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 04:05:19 GMT

title: An Investigation of the Effects of EFL Students’ Self-efficacy in an Asynchronous Online Course with Interactive Contents abstract: This study investigates the role of self-efficacy in an asynchronous online English course enriched with interactive features. Self-efficacy is a strong predictor of academic achievement in conventional classrooms. However, when learning happens in an online environment, the students' learning achievement is also affected by their psychological perceptions of online learning. In this study, the relationship between self-efficacy and affective factors (i.e., learner autonomy, learner-content interaction, and perceptions toward transactional distance) was investigated. The aims of this study were to identify the influence of different levels of self-efficacy on these factors and to explore their relationships in an online EFL course. In total, 286 students were administered the questionnaires before and after the curriculum to probe their self-perception of these affective variables. When asynchronous interactive learning materials came into play, learners with different levels of self-efficacy make statistically different learning achievements. The statistically significant differences were also found between the student's self-efficacy level, their learner autonomy, and their perception toward the interactive contents. However, the difference was not significant between self-efficacy and transactional distance. The cost of asynchronous learning is an increasing transactional distance due to the lack of instructor-learner interaction. This study suggests that interactive content triggered an opposite effect by making the instructor's role invisible rather than absent. A good online course must balance the student's self-determined learning and flexibility with the course structure. Interactive learning content can keep the balance between developing learner autonomy and fostering engagement by dissolving the teacher's role into interactive course material.