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Alsubhi, Mai Salem. "How language and culture shape gesture in English, Arabic and second language speakers." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2018. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/8296/.
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This research project sheds light on how language and culture can shape gestures with certain gesture features. It consists of two studies: a cross-cultural study and a second language study. In the cross-cultural study, gestures of a group of the English speakers and a group of the Arabic speakers were compared in term of certain gesture features: expression of motion events, dual gestures, use of gesture space and gesture rate. Gestures were elicited through narrations of the Tomato Man video clips. It was found that English speakers produced more conflated gestures than the Arabic speakers. It was also found that the English speakers produced fewer dual gestures than the Arabic speakers. Moreover, it was found that the English speakers produced fewer representational gestures and used smaller gesture space than the Arabic speakers. In the second language study, gestures produced during the Arabic and English descriptions of the Arabic early learners of English were compared within subjects. The same methodology was applied. It was found that the speakers produced more conflated gestures while speaking L2 English than while speaking L1 Arabic. It was also found that they produced more dual gestures while speaking their L2 English than while speaking their L1 Arabic. In regard to the use of gesture space and gesture rate, there was no difference between L1 Arabic and L2 English.
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Soliman, Rasha Kadry Abdelatti Mohamed. "Arabic cross-dialectal conversations with implications for the teaching of Arabic as a second language." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9119/.
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This research is divided into two interlinked parts. The first part reviews literature on the diglossia and variability of the Arabic language and investigates how mutual intelligibility is achieved in informal conversations between speakers of different Arabic dialects. 11 conversations were recorded between speakers of 12 Arabic dialects. Instances of borrowing from Modern Standard Arabic were observed and analysed. The participants were also interviewed after the recorded conversations in order to get more insight into the listening comprehension strategies that they applied to achieve intelligibility. The results show that the native speakers tend to rely mostly on their native dialect in cross-dialectal interaction with a much smaller number of borrowings from Modern Standard Arabic in comparison with previous studies. A number of listening strategies were observed to be used in order to aid intelligibility. These strategies included making use of the context, ignoring non-content words and making use of their linguistic knowledge and the root and pattern system in Arabic as a frame of reference in comprehending unfamiliar cognates. The analysis also showed that dialect familiarity has a major role in aiding comprehension between the native speakers of different Arabic dialects. The second part, first, examines the needs of learning Arabic as a second language in Higher Education, then presents a case study that tests the advanced Arabic learners’ level of cognate recognition in unfamiliar dialects and whether explicit strategy teaching and lexical training can improve their dialectal lexical comprehension. Five final year university students of Arabic with an advanced level in MSA and exposure to a dialect participated in this study. Pre and post-tests of dialectal listening comprehension were administered. The results of a higher score in the post-test confirmed that the explicit strategy training helped the Arabic students to achieve better comprehension of cognates in unfamiliar dialects.
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Al-zahabe, Lenah. "Perception of Arabic Folktales by Readers of Different Language/Cultural Backgrounds." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1396541786.
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Dhafiri, Mohammad A. L. "The effect of teaching English language in the elementary schools on Arabic language in the State of Kuwait." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.241686.
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Alshammari, Hammad. "Effect of Time Constraint on Second Language Reading Comprehension." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1071.
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This study aimed to investigate the role of time constraint on second language reading comprehension via the recruiting of 47 Saudi participants who were learning English as a second language. Subjects shared similar level of English proficiency; all participants were in their third semester of English at Aljouf University, Saudi Arabia, at the time of data collection. Participants were divided into three time groups; limited (20 minutes), extended (30 minutes), and unlimited (40 minutes). In terms of stimuli, a reading text was adapted from a standard English proficiency exam, TOEFL. The text consisted of 699 words and was of moderate level in difficulty, calculated as between 8th and 9th grade for native English speakers; passive structures comprised 6% of the text. Questions were also divided into three groups to elaborate the effect of time constraint on each type of questions. The particulars of the study were as follows. Firstly, this study analyzed effect of time constraint on the overall performance on the TOEFL reading passage. Then, effect of time on the three groups, including vocabulary-based questions, literal comprehension questions, and higher order inferential questions. Results revealed that time constraint tends to be an affective factor in reading. In the overall comparison among the 3 different time groups, the unlimited time group showed the highest performance on the reading comprehension task. ii In view of the categories of questions, no significant difference was found on the vocabulary-based questions between time condition groups. The overall low vocabulary scores across groups and the lack of significant effect for time constraint suggest that extended time does not compensate for poor vocabulary knowledge. On the other hand, the unlimited time group demonstrated the best performance relative to the other two groups on the literal comprehension and higher order questions. Of all three categories, the higher-order questions were the most difficult for all three time constraint groups. Overall, the results of this study show that time given to the reading task significantly affects overall reading comprehension scores, but they also suggest that this effect varies in relation to the types of questions.
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EL-NABIH, HASSAN AHMED. "The Acquisition of the English Causative-Inchoative Alternation by Arabic Native Speakers." Thesis, Boston College, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:101759.
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Thesis advisor: Patrick ProctorThis study is an investigation of Arabic native speakers' (ANSs) acquisition of the English causative-inchoative alternation (e.g. Tom broke the vase vs. The vase broke). Emphasis is placed on the relationship between English proficiency, language transfer, and Universal Grammar mechanisms in ANSs' interlanguage representations. Four central research questions guide the study: (1) Does the English causative-inchoative alternation pose a learnability problem for ANSs? (2) Do ANSs distinguish between unaccusative and unergative verbs in English? (3) Are there L1 transfer effects on ANSs' acquisition of the English causative-inchoative alternation? (4) Are there differences across English proficiency levels with respect to the answers to questions 1-3? To address these questions, an acceptability judgment and correction task was administered to a total of 119 ANSs (from the Gaza Strip, Palestine) of different English proficiency levels. Additionally, 23 American native speakers of English served as controls. The results obtained from data analyses indicated that the English causative-inchoative alternation posed a learnability problem for the Arab participants. They exhibited four major non-target behaviors: overpassivization (both ungrammatical and unnatural), overcausativization, underpassivization, and undercausativization. It is argued that these errors can largely be attributed to L1 transfer, since Arabic is significantly different from English in terms of how to encode the causative-inchoative alternation. The results also revealed sensitivity to the unaccusative-unergative distinction in English, which supports the hypothesis that ANSs have access to the innate mechanisms of Universal Grammar. Moreover, while interlanguage development towards target-like behavior was observed across proficiency groups, certain test conditions revealed a strong influence of L1 transfer on even the high proficiency participants. The findings from the study are inconsistent with the modular view of L1 transfer (Montrul, 2000), but they lend support to the hypothesis that L1 transfer operates not only on morphology, but on lexical argument structure as well (Whong-Barr, 2005). The study is an attempt to fill a gap in the literature, since no research has specifically investigated the acquisition of the English causative-inchoative alternation by ANSs
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010
Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education
Discipline: Curriculum and Instruction
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Mustafa, Ali Duaa Mohamed. "Investigation of Linkage Factors Affecting Code-switching in Arabic-English Speakers." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1525439563365435.
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Alamry, Ali. "Grammatical Gender Processing in Standard Arabic as a First and a Second Language." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/39965.
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The present dissertation investigates grammatical gender representation and processing in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as a first (L1) and a second (L2) language. It mainly examines whether L2 can process gender agreement in a native-like manner, and the extent to which L2 processing is influenced by the properties of the L2 speakers’ L1. Additionally, it examines whether L2 gender agreement processing is influenced by noun animacy (animate and inanimate) and word order (verb-subject and subject-verb). A series of experiments using both online and offline techniques were conducted to address these questions. In all of the experiments, gender agreement between verb and nouns was examined. The first series of experiments examined native speakers of MSA (n=49) using a self-paced reading task (SPR), an event-related potential (ERP) experiment, and a grammaticality judgment (GJ) task. Results of these experiments revealed that native speakers were sensitive to grammatical violations. Native speakers showed longer reaction times (RT) in the SPR task, and a P600 effect in the ERP, in responses to sentences with mismatched gender agreement as compared to sentences with matched gender agreement. They also performed at ceiling in the GJ task. The second series of experiments examined L2 speakers of MSA (n=74) using an SPR task, and a GJ task. Both experiments included adult L2 speakers whom were divided into two subgroups, -Gender and +Gender, based on whether or not their L1s has a grammatical gender system. The results of both experiments revealed that both groups were sensitive to gender agreement violations. The L2 speakers showed longer RTs, in the SPR task, in responses to sentences with mismatched gender agreement as compared to sentences with matched gender agreement. No difference was found between the L2 groups in this task. The L2 speakers also performed well in the GJ task, as they were able to correctly identify the grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. Interestingly in this task, the -Gender group outperformed +Gender group, which could be due to proficiency in the L2 as the former group obtained a better score on the proficiency task, or it could be that +Gender group showed negative transfer from their L1s. Based on the results of these two experiments, this dissertation argues that late L2 speakers are not restricted to their L1 grammar, and thus, they are able to acquire gender agreement system of their L2 even if this feature is not instantiated in their L1. The results provide converging evidence for the FTFA rather than FFFH model, as it appears that the -Gender group was able to reset their L1 gender parameter according to the L2 gender values. Although the L2 speakers were advanced, they showed slower RTs than the native speakers in the SPR task, and lower accuracy in the GJT. However, it is possible that they are still in the process of acquiring gender agreement of MSA and have not reached their final stage of acquisition. This is supported by the fact that some L2 speakers from both -Gender and +Gender groups performed as well as native speakers in both SPR and GJ tasks. Regarding the effect of animacy, the L2 speakers had slower RT and lower accuracy on sentences with inanimate nouns than on those with animate ones, which is in line with previous L2 studies (Anton-Medez, 1999; Alarcón, 2009; Gelin, & Bugaiska, 2014). The native speakers, on the other hand, showed no effect of animacy in both SPR task and GJT. Further, no N400 effect was observed as a result of semantic gender agreement violations in the ERP experiment. Finally, the results revealed a potential effect of word order. Both the native and L2 speakers showed longer RTs on VS word order than SV word order in the SPR task. Further the native speakers showed earlier and greater P600 effect on VS word order than SV word order in the ERP. This result suggests that processing gender agreement violation is more complex in the VS word order than in the SV word order due to the inherent asymmetry in the subject-verb agreement system in the two-word orders in MSA.
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Alruwaili, Ruwayshid. "Second language acquisition of aspect and tense by Saudi-Arabic learners of English." Thesis, University of York, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/7203/.
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This study investigates the influence of first language (L1) grammar on the acquisition of temporal and aspectual distinctions in second language (L2) English at different proficiency levels and in different learning settings. Specifically, the study examines interpretations of aspectual and temporal contrasts by Saudi-Arabic learners of English. The two languages share the same underlying representations involving formal syntactic features, but they are different in the morphological configurations that determine which aspectual/temporal meaning is selected. Two different tasks were administered to three learning groups: an acceptability judgment task and a gap-filling task. The learning groups were classified according to learning context (classroom vs. immersion) and performance on a cloze test. The findings revealed that Saudi-Arabic learners of English were able to establish the aspectual contrast between the habitual and progressive and produce these forms to a target-like level. However, they were unable to establish the temporal contrast between the preterite and present perfect. The investigation revealed that the learners’ behaviour on the preterite vs. present perfect contrast was constrained by their L1 grammar. Theoretical implications of these findings are that uninterpretable features are retrievable from universal inventory contra the Interpretability Hypothesis (Hawkins et al. 2008). Besides, the Aspect Hypothesis, which claims that verbal morphology is influenced by lexical aspect, the findings show that it is less likely to predict the route of L2 acquisition of tense and aspect distinctions at a later stage (Andersen & Shirai 1996). However, the results suggest that the Feature Reassembly can accommodate and predict the observed disparity in the performance of Saudi speakers (Lardiere 2008). As for pedagogical implications, the findings suggest that L2 learners follow a similar developmental route regardless of learning context, and explicit instruction does not necessarily guarantee acquisition. The overall conclusion is that L1 grammar might be deterministic in establishing the target-like interpretation, especially when other factors such as input come in play. Therefore, the approach to L2 acquisition should not only consider properties of L1 grammar but also the role of L2 input and the interaction between them in the course of development.
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Etbaigha, Intisar Alsagier. "Using the first language to improve Arabic-speaking students' speaking skills in English as a second language." University of the Western Cape, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/5762.
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Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Foreign Languages)For several decades since the advent of Communicative Language Teaching and the Direct Method, using the first language (L1) in second-language (L2) teaching has been out of favour. However, arguments for using the L1as a resource for L2 learning are becoming increasingly widespread (Cummins, 2014; Widdowson, 2001). This study aims to examine both the role the L1 plays in improving students' L2 speaking skills and their attitudes towards the use of their L1 in the process of learning a second language. A qualitative action research study was thus applied. The research was conducted in an English Language School over a period of six months. Observation, diaries, field-notes, social media, interviews, pre- and post-tests, as well as language biographies constituted the tools for data collection. Data were analysed through coding using critical discourse analysis, the Atlas TI software program and statistical analysis. The analysis was informed by Cummins' hypothesis of transfer and Vygotsky's activity theory. Findings of the study highlighted the effective role played by the L1 in learning the L2, and the effective approach that the L1 can constitute as a scaffold to improve students' L2 speaking skills, their interaction, engagement and participation. Another conclusion was that students possessed a positive attitude towards the use of their L1 in L2 teaching and learning.
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Shelton, Suzanne L. "Teacher's perspectives on content-based classes for K-12 Arabic speakers in an English-only context." Thesis, Capella University, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10103211.
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This qualitative case study explored the teacher’s experiences, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of teaching content-based classes in tandem with English. This study included K-12 Arabic speaking, English Language Learners (ELLs) among the English-only context at 5 international private schools in Saudi Arabia. Second language acquisition (SLA) was examined through the lens of an English-only context that has long been debated as the preferred learning environment for ELLs. This study was concerned with understanding how teachers form their pedagogical attitudes, beliefs and perceptions towards the use of a student’s first language (L1) to facilitate the learning of a student’s second language (L2) within a monolingual teaching environment for content area instruction in K-12 classes. The study’s findings revealed the views of 17 teachers’ perceptions and how their attitudes and beliefs have influenced SLA. Additionally to filing the gap in the literature, this case study found that teachers preferred to use English-only in their classrooms, however; there was a need for the teacher to use Arabic translation when teaching ELLs. The student’s L1 was needed to facilitate the student’s L2 learning. The study recognized that teachers supported the efficacy of English L2 acquisition strategies and there were variant amounts of L1 used by the teacher and between the learners to facilitate the learning of L2. The study showed the teacher’s L2 effectiveness across the curriculum and what had minimal and maximum impact on their students when learning L2. Teachers were sensitive to their student’s sociocultural needs and used cooperative learning to facilitate L1 translation. This case study included 17 teacher interviews, classroom observations and documents as the data collection method. Recommendations for further research include a similar study to be conducted among the pre-school and pre-kindergarten populations.
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Al-Jadani, Anwar Saad R. "Second language acquisition of the dative alternation in English and Arabic : a bidirectional study." Thesis, University of York, 2016. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/13730/.
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This thesis reports on an empirical investigation of native-language (L1) influence on the acquisition of second-language (L2) argument structures in which the L1 argument structures are a superset of those allowed in the L2, and vice versa. To do so, the dative alternation was adopted as a linguistic phenomenon. English allows all verbs in the Give class, Tell class and Throw class to occur in both the Prepositional Dative (PD) construction and the Double Object Dative (DOD) construction. In contrast, only some verbs in the Give class such as ‘give’ and ‘sell’ and the Tell class such as ‘tell’ and ‘show’ are allowed to appear in the DOD construction in Arabic. On the other hand, Scrambling Dative (SD) constructions are allowed in Arabic whereas they are not allowed in English. Two empirical studies investigated three questions: 1) to what extent can L2 learners realise the grammaticality of structures that are not allowed in their L1? 2) To what extent are they able to perceive the ungrammaticality of certain structures in their L2? 3) Which dative structure is acquired earlier? The first investigation was the L2 English study which explored the acquisition of the English dative alternation by native speakers of Arabic. The second investigation was the L2 Arabic study which explored the acquisition of the Arabic dative alternation by native speakers of English. The data were analysed according to four hypotheses: the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis, the Representational Deficit Hypothesis, the Subset-Superset Hypothesis, the Full Transfer and Full Access approach and the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis. The results of the L2 English study generally revealed that Arab leaners of English could not acquire what is absent in their L1 and they generally unlearn the structures that are not allowed in the L2. The results of the L2 Arabic study generally showed that English learners of Arabic could not recognise the ungrammaticality of some Arabic structures. However, they could acquire the SD structures. Overall, the bidirectional results give support to the Subset-Superset Hypothesis and the Full Transfer and Full Access approaches as L2 learners initially transfer their L1 grammar and only gradually restructure themselves and arrive at the L2 grammar, once effective positive evidence is provided.
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Mohammed-Ali, Ahmed Shakir. "Attitudes and motivation of Arabic-speaking students of science and technology in Wales towards English and their relationship to proficiency in English." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.260168.
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Alzahrani, Dhayfullah Saeed. "THE ACQUISITION OF TENSE/LAX DISTINCTION BY ARABIC SPEAKERS LEARNING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE." OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1364.
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The main goal of this study is to investigate the difficulties of acquiring tense/lax /i, I/ and /u, U/ contrasts by adult Arabic speakers learning English as a Second Language (ESL). Twenty Saudi ESL subjects, 16 male and 4 female, produced a list of 20 English monosyllabic words in a carrier sentence. Target vowels were preceded and followed alternately by consonant stops (e.g., /bVb/, /bVt/, /bVd/, /bVk/, /bVg/). The productions were analyzed acoustically for vowel quality and length. The results of the study revealed that most subjects had difficulties acquiring tense/lax contrasts. Their realization of the target vowel /i, I/ and /u, U/ were assimilated to their first language (L1) short vowel counterparts /i/ and /u/ respectively. However, advanced second language (L2) learners tended to produce slightly separate spectral contrasts specifically with front vowels, whereas durational differences of tense/lax contrasts were still affected by durational differences of Arabic long-short contrasts. Additionally, target back vowel contrasts were more difficult to acquire for both beginners and advanced learners. The study suggested that L2 participants were focusing on quantity rather than quality to acquire the target vowels. Orthography was observed affecting L2 production of vowel contrasts, especially with beginners. These findings have been found to support Flege's (1995) Speech Learning Model and Eckman's (1977) Markedness Differential Hypothesis.
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Shehata, Asmaa K. "L₁ influence on the reception and production of collocations by advanced ESL/EFL Arabic learners of English." Ohio : Ohio University, 2008. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1218237449.
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Tamimi, Mohammed Husni Mohammed. "Teaching Culture In Arabic: Perspectives On The Use Of Blended Learning And Hypermedia." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/565886.
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In contemporary foreign language pedagogy, effective teaching of intercultural communicative competence cannot be separated from the use of technology. Web 2.0, social media, mobile devices, online and blended learning, and wearing technology have made it nearly impossible to develop effective courses without basing them on the target culture. Teaching culture, however, is not salient in foreign language teaching; it is the most neglected part (Sercu, 2005) and culture has to defend its legitimacy to be integrated in teaching languages, just as Kramsch (1995) put it "...culture, in order to be legitimate, has always had to justify itself" (p. 85). As a result, teachers devote around 20% of their teaching time to teaching culture (Castro, Sercu & García, 2004). In recent years, nevertheless, there has been a shift in understanding, implementing and integrating teaching culture in foreign language settings (Bayyurt, 2006, Chamberlin-Quinlisk, 2012; Gonen & Aglam, 2012; Castro, et. al., 2004; Byram, 2002), but at a slow pace (Castro et al., 2004; Sercu, García, & Castro, 2005). The situation of teaching culture using technology in Arabic is not as advanced as for other foreign languages and the attempts to remedy the problems are limited. Although interest in learning Arabic has noticeably increased in the last twenty years, educational institutions are far from ready to absorb the new enrollments. The lack of the integration of culture and technology in the Arabic teaching context has led to conducting three interrelated studies in this dissertation which investigated: teaching culture in Arabic: Teachers' and learners perspectives; teaching culture in Arabic: learners' perspectives on blended learning setting; and teaching culture in Arabic: Learners' affect of Arabic Hypermedia. The results of the three studies showed that the teachers and the learners understand the important role that culture plays, but statistically significant differences exist between teachers' and learners' views of some of the aspects of culture teaching. The results also show that learners had positive feelings towards the blended setting and the Arabic Hypermedia. Finally, in a call for teaching language as culture using technology, the dissertation suggests practical pedagogical implications for teaching foreign language and Arabic language.
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Aboutaj, Heidi H. (Heidi Huttar). "Finitness and Verb-Raising in Second Language Acquisition of French by Native Speakers of Moroccan Arabic." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1996. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc277683/.
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In this thesis, the three hypotheses on the nature of early L2 acquisition (the Full Transfer/Full Access view of Schwartz and Sprouse (e.g., 1996), the Minimal Trees view of Vainikka and Young-Scholten (e.g., 1996), and the Valueless Features view of Eubank (e.g., 1996)), are discussed. Analysis of the early French production by two native speakers of Moroccan Arabic is done to determine if the L1 grammar is transferred onto the L2 grammar. In particular, the phenomena of verb-raising (as determined by the verb's position vis-a-vis negation) and finiteness are examined. The results of this study indicate that the relevant structures of Moroccan Arabic do not transfer onto the emerging French grammar.
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Smith, Samuel Joseph Chester. "The Development of Interactive Technology for Conveying Symbols, Signs, and Meaning for Beginning Learners of Arabic." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2012. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3254.
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This study explored how a computer-assisted second-language instructional method introduced basic Arabic vocabulary and grammar and affected vocabulary acquisition. This instructional method used audio, text and animated images to introduce the vocabulary and grammar in a meaningful step-by-step presentation. Volunteers from Brigham Young University and Brigham Young University-Idaho were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group to participate in interactive Arabic language computer programs. The control group received Arabic instruction by means of computerized flashcards, while the experimental group received Arabic instruction by means of animated images. Following the treatment, the volunteers completed an online posttest to measure how much Arabic vocabulary and grammar they learned. Statistical analyses indicated that, overall, neither method was significantly better than the other for these groups of volunteers.
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Mazyad, Suleiman Saleem. "Acquisition of tense and aspect by Arabic-speaking learners of English as a second language." Thesis, Durham University, 1999. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1134/.
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Albaqami, Rashidah. "Second language acquisition of motion constructions : a bidirectional study of learners of Arabic and English." Thesis, University of York, 2016. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14351/.
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In line with Talmy’s typology of lexicalisation patterns (1985, 2000), languages differ in the way they express the semantic constituents of motion events into surface elements. English and Arabic motion constructions differ in whether [path] of motion is expressed on a verb, or by a separate particle. Acquisition of the expression of [path] is expected to cause difficulty for second language learners. In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis in minimalist approaches to L2 acquisition on the importance of the lexicon in accounts of syntactic variation across languages as explained by the feature-based contrastive analysis. This study extends the view of feature reassembly articulated by Lardiere (2000, 2005, 2008, 2009) into the realm of motion events in Arabic and English context following this line of research carried out by Stringer (2012) in the area of spatial morphology. Within the Feature Reassembly approach, Lardiere (2008, 2009) argues that reassembling features that are represented in one way in the first language and mapping them into different lexical items in the L2 will present a greater difficulty. Data collected from a total of 120 participants (60 Arabic learners of English, 20 English learners of Arabic and two control groups of 20 native speakers of Arabic and English), who successfully completed acceptability judgment and animation description tasks, corroborate this postulation. The results strongly suggest that meanings that are encoded differently in the L2 from the L1 are the most challenging, whilst those which are comparable to their L1 representations present less difficulty. On the basis of the learners’ developmental patterns observed in this particular study, I argue that feature reassembly appears to be a significant factor in second language development. This study also supports Stringer’s (2012) conclusions that L2 development in this realm is not connected to simple parameter resetting, but to mastery of lexicons.
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Kandil, Samar A. "the difficulties saudi speakers of arabic have when producing the alveolar lateral approximant /l/ when speaking English as a second language." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1279.
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ABSTRACT Language teachers are often asked, `Will I ever be able to sound like a native?'. Through research, experience, and long-term teaching, the answer is almost always, `If you did not learn the language as a child, then it is almost impossible to sound like a native.' Many studies have contributed to the idea that achieving the native accent as an adult is almost impossible no matter how long one has been exposed to the target language. In an attempt to find the effects of overcoming the foreign accent through exposure to the target language, the present study compares two groups of adult speakers of Arabic from Saudi Arabia learning English as a second language. The study focuses on difficulties associated with producing the Alveolar lateral approximant /l/ and it two allophones, the light [l] and the dark [l], in three different positions: initial, intervocalic and final. The English /l/ is very similar to the Arabic /l/; however, their distributions within the two languages are different. These differences cause problems among speakers of Arabic in producing the correct sound when speaking English. The two groups were chosen based on their length of exposure to the target language; the first group had little exposure to it while the second group had three or more years of exposure. After analyzing the data and comparing the results of the two groups, it can be seen that although there was no significance in the overall results, the production of the dark [l] in final position was close to significance. This suggests that the participants, who have been exposed to the target language for some time, have begun to realize the difference between both /l/s and are thus beginning to apply the English /l/ to their pronunciation when speaking English. In addition, when comparing the errors in both groups, the results suggest that most of the learners who had little exposure to the language were transferring the /l/ from their first language; while those who had three years or more exposure, were resulting to other factors related to interlanguage such as: hypercorrection, attitudes and high levels of motivation to acquire the native speakers' accent. As for the comparison of both the dark and the light /l/ in all three positions, the analysis presented here suggests that Arabic speakers learning English as a second language, regardless of their length of exposure, have more difficulty in producing the dark [l] in its correct positions than the light [l]. Similarly, Arabic speakers prefer to produce the light [l] in the intervocalic position. The results of this study are beneficial to both teachers and learners in ESL settings. If teachers and learners familiarize themselves with the production of the dark [l] in the English language, the possibilities of overcoming this barrier to accented speech may still be regarded as an achievable goal.
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Alasfour, Aisha Saud. "Grammatical Errors by Arabic ESL Students| An Investigation of L1 Transfer through Error Analysis." Thesis, Portland State University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10826886.
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This study investigated the effect of first language (L1) transfer on Arabic ESL learners’ acquisition of the relative clauses, the passive voice and the definite article. I used Contrastive Analysis (CA) and Error Analysis (EA) to analyze 50 papers written by Arabic ESL students at the ACTFL Advanced Mid proficiency level. The analysis was paired with interviews with five advanced students to help determine whether L1 transfer was, in fact, influencing students’ errors predicted by CA.
Students in this study made L1 errors along with other errors. Although no statistical difference was found between the frequency of transfer and other (non-transfer) errors, L1 transfer errors were still common for many learners in this data. The frequency of the relative clause L1 transfer errors was slightly higher than other errors. However, passive voice L1 errors were as frequent as other errors whereas definite article L1 errors were slightly less frequent than other errors. The analysis of the interviews suggested that L1 still played a crucial role in influencing learners errors.
The analysis also suggested that the frequency of transfer errors in the papers used in this study might have been influenced by CA-informed instruction students received and students’ language level. Specifically, learners reported that both factors helped them reduce the frequency of L1 transfer errors in their writing.
The teaching implications of this study include familiarizing language instructors with possible sources of errors for Arabic ESL learners. Language instructors should try to identify sources of errors by conducting their own analyses or consulting existing literature on CA paired with EA. Finally, I recommend adopting a CA-informed instruction to help students reduce and overcome errors that are influenced by their L1.
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Ahmadullah, Morshid Safi. "Teaching and Learning second language : A comparison of teaching and learning Arabic and Dari languages in Secondary Schools of Kabul." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-37167.
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Afghan languages are, influenced by Arabic in the field of academic terms. Also, several Arabic words need to be learnt for daily conversation in Afghanistan. This study is about students and teachers’ views about learning and teaching Arabic and Dari as two second languages in the areas of Kabul where the residents’ native language as well as the language of instruction is Pashto. The aim of the study is to explore similarities and differences between teaching and learning Arabic and Dari in secondary schools of Kabul. The data for this quantitative study was collected from 9 schools in the eastern part of Kabul, Information was gathered through separate questionnaires for teachers and students as well as textbook analysis. The schools were selected via purposive sampling. A total of 60 students and 50 teachers (25 Dari and 25 Arabic) participated in this study. The main findings of the study included that all students are interested in learning both Arabic and Dari for various reasons. However, learning language helps students to understand the context of the textbooks and get knowledge about this is true about learning Arabic as it is a foreign language too. While teaching the languages, teachers only help students improve listening and reading skills as the teachers do most of the talking in class only sometime ask the students to repeat the lesson from textbook. The remaining two important skills i.e. writing and speaking are widely ignored because the teachers ask the students to do the writing at home and provide little time for verbal conversations inside class due to limited time. Likewise, the teachers thought it is important to focus on developing reading skills among students and very little or no attention is given to improving writing skills. In addition, memorization and recalling of information when required is the dominant feature of teaching in the schools I studied in this study. Arabic and Dari languages have lot of similarities, from having same alphabets to lot of common words. In my study most of students’ were interested to learn both Dari and Arabic, but the obstacle they faced during learning Arabic was, that there was not enough qualified Arabic language teachers but number of qualified teachers in Dari language was a lot and that made learning Dari easier for students who were interested. Generally, the results of this research confirm many previous results. However, a lot need to be done by teachers, school management and education authorities to improve the learning and teaching situations.TEMP
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Al-Buanain, Haifa Abdallah F. "Second language acquisition of Arabic : the development of negation and interrogation among learners in the U.K." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26668.
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Hawas, Hamid Mohammed R. "The realization of definiteness in English and Arabic : a contrastive/error analysis study." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.264127.
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Alharbi, Mohammad Melfi. "The second language acquisition of the morphosynchratic realisation of causative and inchoative events in English and Arabic." Thesis, University of Essex, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.654723.
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Starting from the work of Levin and Rappaport Hovav (1995, 2005), this thesis gives an account of the lexical and morphological properties that are relevant to the syntactic expression of causative and inchoative events in Arabic and English, and reports a bidirectional study of how second language (L2) learners of these two languages acquire the different properties involved. It is argued that the two languages differ in both types of property. Given this, by comparing L1 Arabic-speaking learners of L2 English with L1 English-speaking learners of L2 Arabic, it is possible to address questions about the effects of L1 influence and the potential role of innate linguistic knowledge (Universal Grammar) on the development of L2 learners' 'interlanguage' grammars. The Full TransferIFull Access hypothesis of Schwartz and Sprouse (1994, 1996) predicts that the entirety of the L1 lexicon transfers at the initial state. At stages beyond the initial state, L2lexical properties will be acquired, yet L1 influences will persist. Results from grammaticality judgment and forced-choice elicitation tasks conducted with L2 speakers, involving a range of verb types with the potential to express causative/inchoative event meanings, show that low-proficiency learners who are no longer at the initial state nevertheless transfer lexical properties from their L1 into their 'interlanguage' grammars. Results from more proficient L2 learners at later transitional stages show that the two language groups follow different developmental patterns. Arabic learners of English produce overcausativisation and overpassivisation errors before they start to retreat from this overgeneralisation. In contrast, the English-speaking learners of Arabic are more target-like in their use of causatives/inchoatives at all proficiency levels. The implications of these findings for understanding the relative roles that the L1 properties, L2 properties and Universal Grammar play in the acquisition of lexical properties by L2 learners are discussed.
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Alzamil, Abdulrahman Abdullah H. "The second language acquisition of English indefiniteness and genericity by L1 Saudi Arabic and L1 Mandarin speakers." Thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/4057.
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Alsmadi, Zainab. "A qualitative inquiry of five Muslim Canadian's perceptions of their experiences and reflections as Arabic second language learners." Thesis, McGill University, 2014. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=122976.
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This qualitative inquiry focuses on the perceptions and reflections of five Muslim-Canadians who studied Arabic as a second language in Egypt or Syria. I conducted in-depth, conversational interviews with each participant and audio recorded face-to-face or telephone interviews to develop both a collective and individual understanding of their perceptions of learning Arabic as a second language in a study-abroad context. This inquiry aims to understand whether their Muslim-Canadian identities contributed to their investment in learning Arabic, and if their Arabic language learning experiences contributed in any way to their religious identity or their religious practices. The five participants planned their study abroad trips to Egypt or Syria in order to learn the classical form of Arabic and to learn the Quran in order to gain a deeper understanding of their Islamic faith. Findings showed that Arabic aided in their ability to carry out their religious practices such as praying and gaining knowledge. This research has implications for normalizing the ideologies and practices of Muslims, which are often seen by the West and through media images as 'strange' or 'foreign'. Understanding and recognizing the various ways Muslim-Canadians develop their identities and practice their beliefs may enable educators, identity researchers, second language educators, and academic institutions to meet the rising academic and personal needs of this growing population in North America.Cette enquête qualitative porte sur les perceptions et les réflexions des cinq musulmans/es canadiens/iennes qui ont étudié l'arabe comme langue seconde en Égypte ou en Syrie. J'ai mené des conversations approfondies avec chaque participant/e et des entretiens face-à-face ou téléphonique enregistré pour mieux comprendre, à la fois collective et individuelle, leurs perceptions d'apprendre l'arabe comme langue seconde dans un contexte d'études à l'étranger. Cette enquête a pour but de comprendre si leur identité canadienne musulmane a contribué à l'investissement de l'apprentissage de la langue arabe, et si cette expérience, en aucune façon, à influencée leur identité ou leurs pratiques religieuses. Les cinq participants/es ont planifié leur étude à l'étranger, en Égypte ou en Syrie, afin d'y apprendre la forme classique de la langue arabe et du Coran dans le but d'y acquérir une meilleure compréhension de leur foi islamique. L'acquisition de l'arabe les a aidés dans leur capacité à mener à bien pratiquer comme la prière et l'acquisition de connaissances religieuses. Leur raison pour étudier l'arabe à l'étranger était le résultat du manque de cours d'arabe classique adéquats sur place. Cette recherche a pour but de montrer que les idéologies et les pratiques des musulmans, souvent considérés comme «étranges» ou «étrangères» sont banales et ordinaires. Cette étude permettra de comprendre et d'identifier les différentes façons que les musulmans/es canadiens/iennes développent leur identité et pratique religieuse, qui permettra aux éducateurs/trices, aux chercheurs/euses d'identité, enseignants/es de langues secondes et des établissements académiques à mieux répondre aux besoins scolaires et personnels croissants de cette population grandissante.
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Al-Hamad, M. M. "Morphological and syntactic properties in the acquisition of Arabic as a second language : implications for the theory of SLA and for language teaching." Thesis, University of Essex, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.272523.
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Al, Masaeed Khaled. "Functions of Arabic-English Code-switching: Sociolinguistic Insights from A Study Abroad Program." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/301747.
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This sociolinguistic study examines the functions and motivations of code-switching, which is used here to mean the use of more than one language in the same conversation. The conversations studied here take place in a very particular context: one-on-one speaking sessions in a study abroad program in Morocco where English is the L1 and Arabic the L2 of the students, and the opposite applies to their speaking partners. The conversations in this study are conducted in Arabic, and the study focuses on code-switching from Arabic to English in spite of whether the L1 of the speaker is Arabic or English. The functions of code-switching in this study are examined from the perspective of two well-known competing sociolinguistic approaches to code-switching: (1) the markedness model (Myers-Scotton, 1993, 1998; Myers-Scotton and Bolonyai, 2001), based on micro and macro-levels of analysis, and (2) the conversational code-switching approach (Auer, 1984, 1995, 1998; Li Wei 2002), based on micro-levels of analysis. Application of the markedness model showed that marked instances of code-switching were used for a variety of functions, such as (1) strengthening solidarity between speakers; (2) taking care of business and show seriousness and authority; (3) adding aesthetic effects; and (4) playing with words for the sake of joking. The model also showed that unmarked switches served different functions such as (1) requesting the meaning of vocabulary and expressions; (2) asking for accommodation (repetition and speaking slower); (3) bridging a communication gap; (4) and providing expressions and the meaning of vocabulary when circumlocution does not work. The conversational code-switching approach revealed the following functions of code-switching: (1) quotations and reported speech; (2) reiteration (for clarification); (3) change of participant constellation (selection of addressee); (4) language play; and (5) language negotiation. Both approaches proved effective in analyzing the Arabic-English data in this study. However, the analysis shows that the markedness model has an advantage over the conversational code-switching approach. The data shows evidence that speakers' choices are based on rationality rather than on sequential structure. Participants code-switch based on their own goals and what linguistic codes are available to them to achieve these goals.
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Al, Ahmari Saleha Hussain. "THE ACQUISITION OF THE ENGLISH VELAR NASAL /ŋ/ BY SAUDI SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH: ARE THERE DEVELOPMENTAL TRENDS?" OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1444.
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This study aims to examine the developmental acquisition trends of English nasal /ŋ/ by Saudi learners of English. According to the previous literature, the velar nasal /ŋ/ presents significant difficulties for learners of English, especially for Arabic speakers. The literature indicates that their most serious problem lies in their tendency to insert a stop after the velar nasal, such as singing /sɪŋɪŋ/ pronounced as [sɪŋgɪŋg]. Accordingly, this study aims to examine this claim by studying Saudi learners of English as a second language to find the types of committed errors, and the effects of length of residence and language use in diminishing such tendencies. For this purpose, participants representing two ranges of length of residence in the US (LOR < 1 year and LOR >4 years) were recruited. The instruments included both a demographic questionnaire and a production task. A list of English words ending with the velar nasal preceded by different vowels was given. Data analysis made use of speech analyzer, descriptive statistics, frequency analyses, and an independent t-test to see if there are significant developmental trends in the acquisition of the target sound. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence in support of some of the most well-known theories in second language acquisition, namely, Contrastive Analysis hypothesis (Lado, 1957), Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977), and Language Transfer Theory (Odlin, 1986; Gass & Selinker 1994). The absence of the marked velar nasal in coda position and the phonological rules of its use in the marked coda position caused many types of serious mispronunciations in Saudis' oral production of English words that end in such a segment. Resulting types of errors stem from the negative transfer of the allophonic environment of the velar nasal in Arabic language. Such transfer decreases as the length of residence and L2 use increase.
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Al-Qarni, Ibrahim R. "Rote repetition in Saudi Arabian foreign language vocabulary acquisition." Virtual Press, 2003. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1263922.
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This study was designed to examine the impact of rote repetition strategies (RRSs) on the retention of newly learned vocabulary items on both immediate recall test (IRT) and delayed recall test (DRT) in the Saudi Arabian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. The RRSs included in this study were the following:1. Silent repetition (SR): repeating the foreign word with its first language (Ll) translation silently2. Verbal repetition (VR): repeating the foreign word with its first language (L1) translation out loud3. Silent-written repetition (SWR): repeating the foreign word with its first language (Ll) translation silently while writing it down4. Verbal-written repetition (VWR): repeating the foreign word with its first language (L1) translation out loud while writing it downThe following hypotheses were investigated in this study:1. For Saudi EFL college learners rote repetition (RR) is an effective learning strategy in vocabulary learning for both short and long term retention.2. In terms of their impact on short-and-long-term retention, the four RR strategies investigated in this study are predicted to be ranked as follows: VWR > SWR > VR > SR.Four treatment groups with a total of one hundred and thirty three freshmen Saudi students majoring in English language and translation participated in this study. Each group was introduced to one of the above repetition strategies, trained to use the strategy, and instructed to carry out a vocabulary learning task using the specified strategy. The learning task was a memorization task of new English words with their Arabic equivalent translations. An iaanediate recall test (IRT) was administered right after the learning task was carried out followed by a one-week delayed recall test (DRT).The results obtained from participants' scores on both recall tests indicate that rote repetition strategies are effective strategies for Saudi EFL college students and help them in increasing their retention scores. The results also indicate that the SWR and VWR are more effective memorization strategies than VR and SR. The former strategies yielded better retention not only on the IRT but also on the DRT.College of ArchitectureDepartment of English
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Ahmed, Ahmed Khaled. "The relationship between students' cognitive styles and their proficiency in English as a second language." Virtual Press, 1996. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1033643.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate aspects of cognitive styles in relationship to the academic orientation of Arab ESL students. More specifically, this study attempted to answer the following questions:1- What are the different cognitive styles Arab students use in their learning of English as a second language?2- To what degree do Arab students who possess different cognitive styles perform differently on the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency?3- Are students' academic majors related to their proficiency in English as a second language?The subjects of this study were 82 students representing 11 Arab countries enrolled in ESL programs in four American universities. The Inventory of Learning Processes (Schmeck, Ribich, & Ramanaiah, 1977), was used to measure the students' cognitive styles and the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) was used to measure their performance on English as a second language.Results of this study indicated that Arab students fall on a continuum of four different cognitive styles with Elaborative Processing being the most dominant cognitive style among Arab students (44% of students). Deep Processing and Fact Retention were the next two cognitive styles Arab students possessed (26%, 21 % of students respectively). Only 10% of students possessed the Study Methods cognitive style. There was no significant relationship between students' cognitive styles and their performance on English as a second language except for the weak positive relationship that existed between the cognitive style of Elaborative Processing and proficiency in English as a second language. It was also found that students' academic majors played a major role in their performance on MTELP. Literature majors performed significantly better than science majors in English as a second language.It was recommended that ESL instructors at American universities identify Arab students' cognitive styles by using ILP prior to their enrollment in ESL courses. It was also recommended that ESL instructors vary their teaching strategies and resources so that individual student's needs regarding cognitive style are met. Further research is needed to investigate the interaction between students' academic majors, their cognitive styles and their proficiency in English as a second language. It is also important to further explore the relationship between the Elaborative Processing scale and students' proficiency in English as a second language.Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education
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Soliman, I. A. "An exploratory study of the teaching of Arabic as a second language in Cairo : the International Language Institute - Saha Feyeen : a programme evaluation case study." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.526089.
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The difficulties facing Western students owing to diglossia have led a number of Western universities to incorporate a study abroad period in their Arabic Foreign Language (AFL) courses. This period plays a very important role in building students' motivation and offers them a life-enriching experience of acculturation. Students who are ready to learn Arabic in an Arabic-speaking country are in need of reliable information about Arabic Second Language programmes (ASL) in the :\rab world. At present, the only documented information available to these learners and/or course organisers is the brochures that are produced for publicity purposes. ""hether these programmes are based on sound pedagogic beliefs and assumptions, and whether or not they manage to implement these in their syllabuses, methodologies. teaching activities and materials, remains a question to which only an empirical study of ASL programmes can provide an answer. This research examines the underlying assumptions of the Modem Standard Arabic (MSA) programmes offered in Cairo by the International Language Institute (ILl) - Sahafeyeen. The case study evaluates and describes the ILl MSA programme at the levels of "design" and "procedure", and makes suggestions for development and changes. The thesis comprises an Introduction, and seven chapters including the Conclusion. The Introduction outlines the aim and scope of the study, explains its importance, gives an overview of similar studies conducted in other Arab countries and presents an outline of the different chapters. Chapter 1 sets the scene for the study and provides background and context for the case study. It highlights the increasing demand for learning Arabic in the West in relation to the study abroad programmes. The chapter discusses diglossia as the major problem facing Western learners of Arabic, which directs them to the Arab world, where they can learn a dialect and at the same time acquire acculturation. The chapter also describes the ASL setting in Cairo. Chapter 2 explains and discusses the research methodology chosen, the data-gathering tools and the practical steps based on Lynch's (1996) Context Adaptive Model. Chapter 3 examines how the ILl is presented in the available printed documents. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 constitute the core of this study. Chapter 4 looks at the ILl teachers, examines their beliefs and language learning experiences to provide a deeper insight into their classroom techniques and teaching methodologies. Chapter 5 focuses on the learners as a prime source of information and draws upon their beliefs, needs and background to offer an in-depth description and evaluation of the ILl programme. Chapter 6 analyses the ILl classroom procedures with the aim of revealing the ILl methodology in actual use as opposed to its presentation in the brochures and publicity materials. Chapte: 7, the Conclusion, summarises the findings of the study and suggests recommendatIOns for development and improvement.
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Bukhari, Shams Mahdi Amin. "An investigation of students' responses to Arabic and English used by EFL teachers depending on their L1 background in a Saudi Arabian university." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22988.
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This thesis focused on students’ cognitive and affective responses to Arabic (L1) and English (L2) used by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers who come from different L1 backgrounds in English (L2) classrooms in an English institute at a university in Saudi Arabia. Consideration of students’ responses to teachers’ use of English was crucial in this study as it helped to shed light on students’ cognitive and affective responses to the Arabic used by teachers. In addition, students’ preferences for EFL teachers in respect of their L1 background (native Arabic speaker teacher, native English speaker teacher and non-native English/Arabic speaker teacher) were examined. In order to be able to investigate the students’ responses and preferences, it was nessesary, firstly, to develop a deeper understanding of what they were responding to, namely the extent to which, and the conditions under which, teachers employ Arabic in the L2 classrooms. In addition, the extent to which teachers’ use of Arabic varies according to their students’ level of proficiency was also explored. Teachers' views on their own use of Arabic were also identified in order to establish the extent to which their views coincided with that of their students. This study adopted a qualitative approach and data were gathered through classroom observations, semi- structured interviews (in form of stimulated recall interviews), and open-ended questionnaires. Classroom observations were used to identify the extent, as well as the functions, of teachers’ L1 use and to examine whether the degree of teachers’ Arabic use varied according to their students’ level of proficiency. In addition, stimulated recall interviews were employed to explore students’ cognitive and affective responses to their teachers’ L1 and L2 use and students’ preferences for their teachers’ L1 background. The open-ended questionnaires were used to understand whether teachers’ and students’ views on the use of L1 by teachers coincided. The findings suggest that the way that Arabic is used by teachers in the Saudi EFL classroom varies according to the teachers’ L1 background in terms of the consistency, frequency, and the functions of the Arabic used by those teachers. Regarding students’ preferences for their EFL teachers, more than one third of the students (37%), the largest group regarding this aspect, preferred to be taught by a competent English teacher irrespective of their nationality or background; this clearly indicates that some students put emphasis on the pedagogy and professional skills of teachers rather than on their native status. The findings also suggest that a number of common cognitive responses are employed by students, mainly comparing English and Arabic grammatical rules, memorising new words, and making connections between Arabic and English. Furthermore, the results indicate that for most students (21 out of 30) Arabic helped to keep the affective filter low, making them feel more comfortable, happy and less anxious, whereas Arabic made the other students uncomfortable and more anxious. Moreover, it was found that the most frequently used strategies when students responded to teachers’ English use were mental translation, use of dictionaries and requesting clarification, while the least frequently used strategies were finding alternative English synonyms or avoidance. Finally, the findings indicate that teachers’ views generally coincide with students’ views about teachers’ use of Arabic. The findings from this study may benefit language teachers and programme designers to help them develop training programmes for teachers that take into account learner preferences regarding the background of their EFL teachers, particularly in the field of teaching EFL in the Saudi context. More importantly, the study suggests that learners should be trained how to use L1 as a successful learning strategy and that teachers should raise students’ awareness, especially those students with low proficiency in English, that Arabic can be used as a cognitive strategy, for example, to compare the similarities and differences between L1 and L2.
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Enbom, Anna. "Enklare väg in i ett nytt språk : En webbkurs för nybörjare i arabiska." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för informationsteknologi och medier, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-18921.
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Detta examensarbete går ut på att utveckla en webbplats som riktar sig till svenskar som vill lära sig arabiska. Syftet med webbplatsen är att minska tröskeln till att lära sig arabiska. En stor del av arbetet har bestått i att ta del av litteratur om språkinlärning, språkutbildning och datorstödd språkinlärning, samt att studera andra webbplatser. Den webbplats jag har skapat bygger till stor del på en MySQL-databas. Webbplatsen är skapad med PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery och AJAX. Det finns ett gränssnitt där administratörer kan lägga in nya ord och meningar. Orden och meningarna i databasen har lagrats med morfemen åtskilda så långt det är möjligt. En fördel är att det underlättar visualiseringar, utbyggnad av nya funktioner och att det går snabbare för administratörer att lägga in nya ord och meningar. Några av de funktioner som finns på webbplatsen är: Varje ord i ordlistan visas med sina viktigaste böjningsformer. För varje ord kan man se hur det är uppbyggt i bokstäver. För varje ord kan man se vilka meningar det ingår i, för varje mening kan man klicka på valfritt ord för att få mer information om ordet. Varje mening visas både med sin översättning och en ordagrann översättning. Användare kan spara valfria ord och förhöras på dem. För att värdera webbplatsen har jag bland annat genomfört en användarundersökning. Resultatet visar att webbplatsen som helhet är bra och att det finns ett behov av den, samtidigt som utseendet och användarvänligheten kan förbättras.The aim of this project is to develop a website for swedes that want to learn Arabic. The purpose of the website is to facilitate the learning of Arabic. A large part of the project has been dedicated to study second language acquisition, language education and computer-aided language learning as well as to study other websites. The website I have created is based on a MySQL database. The website is built with PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery and AJAX. Apart from the website there is an interface for administrators where they can add words and sentences to the website. The words and sentences in the database are stored so that morphemes are separated as far as possible. An advantage with that solution is that it facilitates visualizations, creation of new functions and that administrators can add new words and sentences with less effort. Some of the functions that the website offers are: Each word in the wordlist are represented with its most common inflections. Each word can be broken up into letters. For each word you can click to find sentences where the word is included, for each sentence you can click on a word to find more information about it. Each sentence are represented with both a translation and a word by word translation. Users can save words and be tested on them. To value the website a survey has been done. The survey shows that the website in general is good and that there is a need for it, while the look and the navigation needs to be improved.
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Elsayed, Ahmed. "The relationship between the level of acculturation in American (English-speaking) culture and language proficiency in Arabic among adolescents." Thesis, Wayne State University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3646963.
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The purpose of this study is to describe the relationship between acculturation and Arabic language skills in Arab American youth in a community center setting. Seventy Arabic speaking students at the age of 13 through 17 in a Midwestern state were selected on a non-random sampling basis to participate in this study. Three main measures were used to collect data: (1) Student Demographic Survey, (2) student acculturation scale and (3) the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE Exam).
Descriptive analyses were used to summarize, classify and simplify the data collected from the two surveys. Inferential analyses, on the other hand, were used to investigate two research hypotheses of this study. Two statistical tests were used: Pearson product moment correlations were used to determine if the level of acculturation was related to the students' language proficiency in Arabic. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine if acculturation could be used to predict Arabic proficiency after controlling for age, gender, years of school in the United States and years of formal education in Arabic. The demographic variables were entered first in the multiple linear regression analysis to remove their effects on Arabic language proficiency. There were non-significant relationships between the variables. Explanations were provided regarding why the research hypotheses were not supported. Potential future research is also examined.
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Hillstrom, Rebecca Ann. "Social Networks, Language Acquisition, and Time on Task While Studying Abroad." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2011. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2780.
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This study was designed to collect and evaluate the social networks of 32 study abroad students participating in the 2009 BYU study abroad program in Amman, Jordan. Survey data, language journals, and test scores were analyzed to determine how they successfully built social networks with native speakers, the relationship between students' social networks and time spent using Arabic outside of class, and the relationship between students' social networks and their acquisition of Arabic. The experiment provided a number of insights into how study abroad students meet potential conversation partners, select which relationships to pursue, and develop relationships in order to build social networks. The study also found that the intensity of students' social relationships as well as the number of clusters in their social networks were predictors of language gains. Additionally, the findings show that social network dispersion and the size of the largest cluster in a network predicted time spent using Arabic outside of class.
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Walsh, Heather Raquael. "The Female Experience: Study Abroad Students in Egypt." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2011. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3193.
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This qualitative study explores the experiences of female students on study abroad programs, with the aim of answering the following questions: do they face unique challenges as female students (including harassment or assault), how do they avoid or cope with any negative experiences, and can we as language departments better prepare our students to have the best experiences possible? The participants for the study were primarily 12 of 50 students involved in the Brigham Young University Study Abroad to Cairo, Egypt during Spring and Summer terms 2010. Data include participant observation, student journals, and ethnographic interviews conducted during the last few weeks of the program. Data analysis reflected gendered experiences in socializing with native speakers as well as experiences with harassment, and even sexual assault. The thesis argues that proper student preparation is the key to their continued investment in culture and language learning. Future research could include a look at second language learners across the Middle East, factors that contribute to harassment and assault, and gender as a predictive factor of language gains.
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Nichols, Jennifer Lynn. "Motivation and Affective Variables in Arabic Language Learning for Iraq War Veterans: Language Learning Experiences Inside and Outside the Classroom." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1274056937.
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Alenizi, Aied M. "The Acquisition of the Nongeneric Uses of the English Definite Article the by Arabic Speakers of English." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1069.
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This study aimed to investigate the acquisition of the four non-generic uses of the English definite article the by Arabic learners of English in Saudi Arabia. These non-generic uses included textual, situational, cultural and structural. This study had three goals: (1) to determine whether these uses are acquired in a certain sequence; (2) to explore which one of these uses is the most difficult and the easiest in learning; (3) to investigate whether one or two of the uses are overused.
The instrument consisted of 59 sentences adopted from Liu and Gleason (2002). There were 40 instances for required uses and 20 sentences for obligatory nonuse (5 instances for each use). The subjects were instructed to insert the where they deemed it necessary. The participants were 45 male undergraduate English major students, whose ages ranged from 18 to 22 with a Mean age of 21.6, from a university in Saudi Arabia. They were divided into three groups (15 students each) based on their proficiency levels as follows; low intermediate, intermediate, and advanced. The results revealed developmental trends in the acquisition of the non-generic uses of the English definite article related to proficiency. Specifically, the advanced group showed significantly higher accuracy of use in all four functions. Regarding the four functions, the order of acquisition, based on level of accuracy was as follows: situational, cultural, structural and textual. The study results are discussed in view of their pedagogical implications for the teaching of the definite article to Saudi learners of English.
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Al-Nassan, Abidrabbo. "Les compétences lexicales en arabe langue étrangère/seconde : analyse d'un corpus télévisuel syrien." Thesis, Lyon, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016LYSE2070/document.
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L’enseignement du lexique arabe à l’Institut supérieur des langues de Damas n’est pas encore à la hauteur des attentes de l’apprenant pour lui fournir une bonne connaissance lexicale. Les outils pour développer ce travail n’ont pas évolué dans les méthodes utilisées. Dans ces méthodes, on applique toujours l’approche classique du lexique. Cette approche n’est plus valable au moment où le critère de fonctionnalité lié à la notion de fréquence a commencé à avoir sa place dans la nouvelle conception du lexique. Ce projet de thèse vise donc à contribuer à l’enseignement de l’arabe langue étrangère à l'Institut supérieur des langues en profitant des recherches faites pour l'enseignement d’autres langues vivantes, et spécialement celles qui s’inscrivent dans le Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues (CECRL)Standard Arabic is actually the language of writing. The speeches made in the media and in some TV series are, in most cases, a literal restatement of visual coding of the language (text written in standard Arabic) in auditory coding (reading aloud the written text). Similarly, everyday Arabic does not have the same coding as Arabic that exists in the media, in books and in Arabic language courses. This gives the impression that the current teaching content is not suitable for a usage outside the language classroom.This thesis deals with the problem of the composition of the lexical content of textbooks of teaching Arabic L2 of Higher Language Institute of Damascus (Syria). A content that does not withdraw from standard norms (focus on the adaptation of a classic or moderne standard Arabic), but seeks to be as close as possible to the daily practice of language that is very rich in dialect. The current content represents the traditional approach of the lexicon, which focuses on the semantics of words and phrases while the communicative features of these language elements are little treated. The proposed analysisshows the weak points in the structure of textbooks now in use. It is based on the criteria of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the skill references of Niveaux pour le français that offer an approach batter adapted to the preparation of the lexicon in recent textbooks of teaching moderne languages. This analysis focuses on finding the crossing points in standard and spoken Arabic in Syria to build a route map that allows the learner an easy passage from what he learns in the Arabic language classroom to Arabic that is really practiced in everyday communications. It provides some solutions to reduce the gap between these two usages of Arabic
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Belmihoub, Kamal. "A Framework for the Study of the Spread of English in Algeria: A Peaceful Transition to a Better Linguistic Environment." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1333655702.
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Alalwi, Fahd Shehail. "Intercultural Competence Development in a Study Abroad Context: Saudi Study Abroad Learners in the United States of America." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/605109.
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This longitudinal study used qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the development of aspects of the intercultural competence (ICC) of Saudi learners of English as a second language in a study abroad (SA) context based on Deardorff's (2004) ICC model. It also examined students' development of Saudis' perceptions of the home and host cultures at the beginning of SA and after four months. Moreover, this study explored the relationship between ICC and second language proficiency. This study found no substantial change in ICC-related attributes over four months of studying abroad. Results also showed an overall agreement in ICC assessment between the teachers and the students. As far as perceptions of members of the Saudi and US cultures are concerned in the second study, the findings suggested that the Saudi SA students continued to use their home frame of reference even after four months of study in the US and that the national stereotypes persisted. In these results, US Americans are perceived to be work-oriented, whereas Saudis are relationship-oriented. The findings of the third study demonstrated that SA students' perceived gains with regard to skills of speaking, listening, reading, grammar, and vocabulary were significantly lower than their expectations at the beginning of the program and that their expectations were relatively low for culture learning. Moreover, no significant relationship was found between SA students' L2 usage patterns and L2 learning, nor between L2 usage patterns and C2 learning. However, the level of L2 proficiency upon entry into the SA program indicated a strong correlation with perceived gains in L2 learning. Interestingly, no relationship was found between ICC and L2 learning, nor between ICC and C2 learning.
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Azaz, Mahmoud. "Acquisition of Form-Meaning Mapping in L2 Arabic and English Noun Phrases: A Bidirectional Framework." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/333120.
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Despite the plethora of SLA research conducted on the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations in L2 Arabic and English (e.g., Sarko, 2007; Master, 1997; Collier, 1987; Anderson, 1984; Kharma, 1981), there is as yet no definitive description of how noun phrases are acquired and why errors persist after advanced stages in L2 learning. Results, as shown by Butler (2002), are inconclusive, and the primary causes of difficulties in the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations remain unclear. Recently, the internal syntax-semantics interface (Cuza & Frank, 2011; Montrul, 2010; Tsimpli & Sorace, 2006; Sorace, 2003, 2004) and the specificity-definiteness distinction (Ionin, 2003; Ionin et al., 2004; Ionin et al., 2008) have been considered as appropriate frameworks for exploring the acquisition of noun phrases and other structural features. The structure of noun phrase configurations in Arabic and English offers a complex interface between form and meaning for L2 learners with multiple cases of matches and mismatches between specificity and definiteness. In this three-article dissertation project, two of which were conducted in a bidirectional methodological framework with L1 Arabic-L2 English and L1 English-L2 Arabic learners, I explored the acquisition of three cases of noun phrase configurations. In the first study, I investigated the acquisition of plural noun phrase configurations that carry generic and specific readings at the initial state of L2 learning. Using three data collection instruments: written translation; error detection and correction; and forced choice elicitation, I tested the predictions made by the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and the Full Transfer (FT) Hypothesis. Results showed that L2 learners in both directions tend to transfer noun phrase configurations from L1 into L2, a result that I took to support the FT hypothesis. In addition, it took L1 English-L2 Arabic learners two years of instruction to recover from this L1 effect. The second study aimed at confirming the result of the first study, but in the acquisition of the definite marker in generic singular noun phrase configurations in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. The behavior of generic singular noun phrases in L2 Arabic offers a good testing ground since it has numerous similarities and differences with English. Two conditions were established: a matching condition and a mismatching condition. Both conditions were tested in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. Results showed a similar pattern to the one recorded in the first study. Typological proximity and distance were found to be important determiners of language acquisition of the in/definiteness configurations of singular noun phrases. In the third study, I shifted to the exploration of a more complex type of noun phrases; namely the definite Iḍāfah construction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and its equivalent noun phrase configurations in English in the two directions. I started with a common difference between MSA and English. Whereas in MSA there is a canonical configuration in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness, English is tolerant of more than one permissible configuration. I operationalized the acquisition of these noun phrases in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness. Results showed a clear effect of L1 transfer in both directions; knowledge of L1 noun phrase configurations acts as the initial step in L2 learning. I concluded that both communities of L2 learners face problems that vary according to the L1 noun phrase configuration at hand. However, in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction, learners reached a satisfactory level of performance in the Iḍāfah construction after two years of instruction. I approached this finding as a result of intensive Focus-on-Form Episodes (Loewn, 2005) that the Iḍāfah construction receives in MSA instruction. At the conclusion of this research project I highlighted some implications for the second language acquisition and teaching of noun phrases. The overall results were couched in a broader perspective that characterizes the initial state of L2 learning of noun phrases in + article and – article languages, the effects of typological proximity and distance, and the effects of Instructed SLA. For the pedagogical implications, I called for the integration of the semantics of the definite marker while presenting noun phrases in textbooks. I also recommended the use of explicit instruction and structured-input activities (VanPatten, 2004; Marsden & Chen, 2011) as effective pedagogical tools that foster form-meaning mapping in the acquisition of L2 Arabic and English noun phrases.
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Alaboudi, Rashed Saad. "THE UTILITY OF SECOND LANGUAGE BLOGGING: STUDENT PERCEPTIONS FROM ENGLISH WRITING COURSES IN SAUDI ARABIA." OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1363.
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Technology is advancing in continuous and swift steps, producing many tools that can be utilized in language teaching and learning practice.This study aims to examine the perceptions of 16 male English writing students in a Saudi university towards the utility of using blogging in their writing classes. The instrument of this study includes a survey of 19 Likert-scale questions, three open-ended questions, and five demographic questions. Six major areas of interest are explored in view of participants' perceptions of blog-based writing classes, including usefulness, benefits, advantages and disadvantages and whether or not they would choose a blog-based writing class in the future. The results reveal that the utility of blogging is perceived positively by the majority of participants in this study and is associated with an increased motivation and involvement in the learning process. Blog-based English writing classes are found useful for improving learners' critical thinking skills, vocabulary knowledge, writing style, sentence structure, grammatical competence, audience awareness, punctuation, organizational structure, and creativity of ideas. Among all these benefits, the highest mean is observed in relation to the benefits of blogging for participants' growth as critical readers of other students' writings. Overall, the results of the present study add further support to the postulations of Collaborative Learning Theory (Dillenbourg,1999) and the Expectancy Theory (Groom, 1964), according to which collaboration in learning facilitates the process of reaching the expected learning outcomes. Based on the results of the present study, the use of blogging as a teaching tool seems to facilitate both the collaborative nature of learning and the level of learner expectancy.This observation is supported by the high percentage (56%) of participants who agreed that by writing blogs they have learned to write for different audiences. The findings of this study also draw attention to the fact that some negative observations were made about the quality and effectiveness of peer work and peer feedback.This is one area that needs to be considered in future research in order to find effective ways of incorporating peer collaboration in the development and assessment of students' writing skills in English blog-based classes.
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Qattous, Kathem Mohammed. "The cultural dimension of English for specific purposes." Thesis, Durham University, 1995. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5478/.
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In the variation of English for Occupational Purposes, ESP is usually considered to be culture-free. This thesis investigates, as an example, a vocational ESP program in Saudi Arabia to establish, first, what cultural values might be present in the course materials, and second, how the ESP programme relates to the school system in which workers have been educated. The study proposes that there is a cultural content even in what appears to be a culture-free ESP program, and that this cultural content is expected to provide the non-native target population learners with values and thinking abilities that are different from those that are in the receiving environment. The study shows how an ESP program can have a Western cultural perspective that provides Western values and thinking abilities and general / basic education. The thesis consists of six chapters and a general introduction. The Introduction discusses the significance of ESP, the general view that it is 'culture-free', and the importance of analysing an example ESP program to see if this is the case. Chapter One presents an account of ESP, its definition, nature, development, and key issues in the field of its syllabus design and significance in its various fields, with focus on the significance of ESP having a common core component. Chapter Two presents an account of the literature on the concepts of socialisation and culture, its definition, nature, relation with language, learning, and significance in foreign language teaching (FLT), English language teaching (ELT), and specifically in ESP. Chapter Three introduces Saudi Arabia, with a brief account of its socio- cultural aspects, religion, educational system, and the significance of English language teaching in it. It also has a section about the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) which represents the environment of Western cultural learning in the ESP program, namely Vocational English Language Training (VELT).
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Alqarni, Abdullah Ahmed. "THE REALIZATION FOR THE ENGLISH VOICELESS POSTALVEOLAR AFFRICATE /tʃ/ IN NAJDI SAUDI ESL LEARNERS PRODUCTION." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1082.
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The current study investigated the realization for the English voiceless postalveolar affricate /tʃ/ in Najdi Saudi ESL learners' production. The goal of the study was to investigate whether Najdi Saudi ESL learners have difficulties in pronouncing /tʃ/. Both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors were taken into consideration. Eighteen Najdi ESL learners' with different length of residency in the US were the sample of the study. Sixteen English words with /tʃ/ in initial and final position represented the instrument of the study. Data were analyzed using both SPSS and Speech analyzer software. The results showed that Najdi ESL learners have difficulties with /tʃ/, and they pronounced it as /ʃ/. Pronunciation for /tʃ/ was more difficult in word-final position than word-initial. The study also, found that learners with longer LORs produced more accurate pronunciation than learners with shorter LORs. Commonly used words were not a variable of interest, however the study showed that learners had fewer errors with commonly used words, than uncommon ones. Finally, the results provided support for theories and hypotheses such as the CAH (Lado, 1957), MDH (Eckman, 1977), and LTT (Gass and Selinker, 1994).
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Weldemichael, Tedros Hagos. "The attitudes of Tigre-speaking students in Eritrea towards studying Arabic and Tigrinya as second languages at school : a case study." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/3600.
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El-Mereedi, Mary L. "Transactional Literature Discussions in English Language Teaching: An Investigation of Reader Stance and Personal Understanding Among Female Arabic-Speaking Learners of English at Qatar University." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1384349370.
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