Effectiveness of Our New Right-to-Left English Transcription on Arabic Learning Using the Reversed Image -Support in Arabic E-Learning System for the Beginners

Arabic language differs from other languages in some features such as right-to-left writing, unfamiliar letters and sounds, using one of the letter2019;s forms depending on the letter2019;s position in a word, and attaching a diacritical mark to a letter to show how it is pronounced. It is important to provide a new transcription that follows Arabic direction and to help non-Arabic speakers to locate the letters corresponding to Arabic letters and their attached diacritical marks to read them. We invented a new transcription system for Arabic in which we transcribed every Arabic unit (an Arabic letter with an attached diacritical mark) by an English unit (an uppercase with a lowercase letter); we reversed the images of all English units horizontally. The new reversed transcription matches the direction of the Arabic writing. Our main aim is to apply this transcription in our new Arabic e-learning system as an on-demand support which let the learners read Arabic text itself at their own pace. This paper shows how our reversed image transcription works, especially for the beginners

Developmental dyslexia in Arabic : devising a diagnostic tool can enrich our understanding of the manifestation of dyslexia amongst monolingual Arabic children

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Constructing Arabic as Heritage: Investment in Language, Literacy, and Identity among Young U.S. Learners

The numbers of learners studying Arabic in the U.S. have increased more than any other language over the last ten years. As a critical language, important for strategic political and economic reasons, Arabic has received considerable support from the Departments of State and Education (Jackson & Malone, 2009; Wiley, 2007). However, Arabic is also a prominent heritage language, important for cultural and interpersonal reasons to the families and communities who speak it and for whom it is a binding force (Fishman, 2001; Van Deusen-Scholl, 2003). Nevertheless, research on learners of Arabic and their learning processes is still very limited. Existing studies have compared Arabic heritage learners’ motivation and the structure of their language knowledge with that of non-HLLs (Husseinali, 2006; Benmamoun, Montrul, & Polinsky, 2010), but HLL research has hardly addressed the complex social and cultural influences on their learning processes (He, 2010; Montrul, 2010). Drawing on investment in language learning (Norton Peirce, 1995; Norton, 2000) as a theoretical lens, this study asks how learners and their families construct Arabic as heritage and its implications for their beliefs and practices. Focusing on students in a public charter middle school in the southeast U.S. who are studying Arabic as a foreign language, this study seeks to bring together language learning, identity construction, and the challenges and implications of biliteracy for Arabic learners from a range of backgrounds in an effort to understand the complexity of the Arabic learning process. To that end, it uses ethnographic methods including interviews with five focal families, class observations, and surveys and strives for grounded theory. In constructing heritage, each learner and family, from a range of national and cultural backgrounds, must balance priorities regarding the multiple varieties of Arabic, religious literacy, and the role of Arabic in local and global contexts. Results should shed light on the role of social context in language and literacy development for Arabic and comparable LCTLs, contribute to theory regarding the relationship between identity construction and language learning for heritage learners, and suggest approaches to supporting young learners of critical and heritage languages to promote a more multilingual society

English speakers' common orthographic errors in Arabic as L2 writing system : an analytical case study

PhD ThesisThe research involving Arabic Writing System (WS) is quite limited. Yet, researching writing errors of L2WS Arabic against a certain L1WS seems to be relatively neglected. This study attempts to identify, describe, and explain common orthographic errors in Arabic writing amongst English-speaking learners. First, it outlines the Arabic Writing System’s (AWS) characteristics and available empirical studies of L2WS Arabic. This study embraced the Error Analysis approach, utilising a mixed-method design that deployed quantitative and qualitative tools (writing tests, questionnaire, and interview). The data were collected from several institutions around the UK, which collectively accounted for 82 questionnaire responses, 120 different writing samples from 44 intermediate learners, and six teacher interviews. The hypotheses for this research were; a) English-speaking learners of Arabic make common orthographic errors similar to those of Arabic native speakers; b) English-speaking learners share several common orthographic errors with other learners of Arabic as a second/foreign language (AFL); and c) English-speaking learners of Arabic produce their own common orthographic errors which are specifically related to the differences between the two WSs. The results confirmed all three hypotheses. Specifically, English-speaking learners of L2WS Arabic commonly made six error types: letter ductus (letter shape), orthography (spelling), phonology, letter dots, allographemes (i.e. letterform), and direction. Gemination and L1WS transfer error rates were not found to be major. Another important result showed that five letter groups in addition to two letters are particularly challenging to English-speaking learners. Study results indicated that error causes were likely to be from one of four factors: script confusion, orthographic difficulties, phonological realisation, and teaching/learning strategies. These results are generalizable as the data were collected from several institutions in different parts of the UK. Suggestions and implications as well as recommendations for further research are outlined accordingly in the conclusion chapter

The impact of L1 writing system on ESL knowledge of vowel and consonant spellings

Orthographic knowledge, the general ability to learn, store, and use information about the orthographic form of words (Stanovich & West, 1989), is a crucial skill for supporting literacy. Although the development of first language (L1) orthographic awareness is impacted by the characteristics of a learner’s L1 writing system, relatively little is known about what impact the L1 may have on second language (L2) orthographic awareness. In this study, English language learners from three L1s (French, Hebrew, Mandarin Chinese), plus L1 English speakers, were tested on their English spelling knowledge using a word-pseudohomophone discrimination task. In addition to allowing for the cross-linguistic comparisons, items were designed to examine whether learners had differing performance on pseudohomophones (misspellings) that targeted vowels versus consonants. Consistent with previous research (e.g., McBride-Chang, Bialystok, Cong, & Li, 2004), the L1 Chinese speakers had the highest (L2) accuracy, followed by the L1 Hebrew and the L1 French speakers. The participants from non-alphabetic languages (Hebrew and Chinese) had significantly lower accuracy on items with misspellings involving vowels compared to consonants, and the size of the vowel-consonant accuracy difference varied substantially across L1 groups. The results demonstrate that the characteristics of a learner’s L1 writing system, particularly the existence of vowel and consonant graphemes, impact the development of L2 orthographic knowledge and sensitivity to different types of word misspellings

Pronunciation as a Stumbling Block for the Saudi English Learners: An Analysis of the Problems and Some Remedies

Pronunciation is an area of L2 learning that has long been relegated to the status of secondary skill. However, it is a mistaken belief or wrong notion that correct pronunciation plays little role in communication. It is observed that in many cases, mispronunciation leads to unintelligibility of speech and/or misinterpretation of the message/information: a barrier to communication. This premise prompted the researchers to study the difficulty in pronunciation experienced by Saudi students. This paper is also an attempt at exploring the pronunciation problems faced by the Saudi students of English and aims to propound possible remedial measures.  The researchers have included students enrolled in the English departments and their teachers at two universities in Saudi Arabia. Primary data was collected from the students and their teachers using surveys, interviews, and classroom observation of students’ presentations. The study made some suggestions regarding materials that can help rectify the pronunciation of English among Saudi learners of English

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationAdult second language (L2) learners often experience difficulty with novel L2 phonological contrasts, limiting their ability to establish contrastive lexical representations of L2 words. It has been demonstrated that the availability of orthographic input (OI), and variables interacting with OI, can shape the inferences learners make about L2 words' phonological forms. The present dissertation focuses on grapheme familiarity and congruence, in addition to L2 experience and the effect of instruction, in the case of native English speakers learning L2 Russian(-like) words presented in Cyrillic. Few studies have directly investigated effects of grapheme familiarity and congruence on phono-lexical acquisition simultaneously, systematically investigated the variables' effects on naïve and experienced L2 learners, or investigated how explicit intervention can mediate OI effects. The present dissertation addresses these gaps in our understanding. The two studies in this dissertation employed the artificial L2 lexicon paradigm. Taken together, the results indicate the following: (i) native language orthographic interference effects are robust in L2 word learning, especially when grapheme-phoneme correspondences are incongruent (unfamiliar and congruent stimuli did not cause difficulty); (ii) experience with the Russian language mediates this interference, with advanced learners performing near ceiling on all stimuli types and naïve learners performing least accurately; and (iii) naïve learners do not seem to benefit from textual enhancement and instruction prior to word learning in an experiment. The results of the present dissertation suggest that more research is needed to address the challenges associated with the interference effects of OI in L2 acquisition

Vocabulary learning strategies used by AFL (Arabic as a Foreign Language) learners in Saudi Arabia

This study investigates vocabulary learning strategies used by AFL learners in Saudi Arabia. It seeks to explore the relationship between vocabulary strategy use and success. Further, the study - aims to examine the effect of certain individual, situational and social factors on the use of vocabulary learning strategies. The methodological approach adopted for this study is a combination of a 'multiple cases' approach and survey. The purpose of the multiple cases is to identify vocabulary learning strategies employed by successful and less successful learners of Arabic. The survey, on the other hand, has been conducted to examine variations in vocabulary strategy use according to the following factors: students' first language, proficiency level, level of achievement, course type, the variety of Arabic used out of class, and religious identity. The results of the multiple cases demonstrate that there are major differences between the two groups of students in the seven categories of vocabulary learning adopted in this study, namely, non-dictionary strategies for discovering the meanings of new words, dictionary use, note-taking, memorization, practice, metacognitive strategies, and expanding lexical knowledge. Moreover, the data of the multiple cases identified three levels of strategies. The first level is termed the 'main strategy level', which includes the seven main categories mentioned above. The second and third levels are termed the 'strategy level' and the 'substrategy level' respectively. The multiple cases data also show that students seem to use vocabulary learning strategies in particular combinations and certain orders. The results of the survey indicate that the two situational factors (course type and variety of Arabic used out of class)investigated in this study seem to have a fairly strong relationship with vocabulary strategy use. The individual factors (students' first language proficiency level and level of achievement) examined in this study,on the other hand, appear to have a very weak relationship with the use of vocabulary learning strategies and finally the social factor (religious identity) appears to have some relationship with vocabulary strategy use

EXAMINING READING-RELATED TEACHER EDUCATION AMONG TEACHERS OF STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES IN SAUDI ARABIA

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between reading-related training (university courses and professional development beyond university training) and the implementation of reading instruction among teachers of students with LD in Saudi schools. A survey was sent to both male and female teachers of students with LD (N = 2158) in Saudi schools, asking them about their demographic information, reading-related courses, reading- related professional development activities, and their implementation of reading instruction in their classroom. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the correlation between teachers’ reading-related training and their implementation of 17 reading practices for students with LD. The results indicated that teachers’ reading-related training was significantly related to their implementation of ten reading practices. The implications and recommendations for future research, policy, and practice are discussed