Negotiating Arabic: Diglossic Language and Intercultural Proficiency in American Education

Diglossia refers to the coexistence of High (H) and Low (L) varieties within a language (Ferguson 1959). Arabic, a diglossic language, struggles with this division. Native speakers of Arabic communicate via their dialects (L). Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) in the US focuses on Modern Standard Arabic (H), neglecting the dialects. US government investment in Arabic as a critical language since 9/11 has continued to prioritize the instruction and professionalization of the H variety, suppressing intercultural proficiency. Arabic Language curricula in the US must evolve to teach meta-linguistic awareness between the H and L forms of Arabic

Lebanese Arabic listeners' perception of Australian English vowels

Second language (L2) learning involves more than simply understanding the grammar or writing system of a new language; it also requires the acquisition of a new sound system. In particular, vowels are particularly difficult to perceive due to the influence of the learners’ native language vowel inventory (Flege, 1995; Escudero, 2005; Best & Tyler, 2007). The present study investigated the role of acoustic similarity in predicting bilingual Lebanese Arabic-English (LA) listeners’ discrimination of Australian English (AusE) vowels. The findings are in line with the predictions based on acoustic similarity in terms of the Second Language Linguistic Perception model (L2LP; Escudero & Boersma, 2004; Escudero, 2005; 2009a). In particular, LA listeners use duration as a cue to facilitate discrimination of AusE vowel contrasts which produces few difficulties. For the LA listeners, discrimination difficulty is only apparent for vowel contrasts where the vowels do not align perfectly with native LA counterparts. Furthermore, when both vowels in the non-native contrast are acoustically similar to or perceived as the same multiple native categories, resulting in an acoustic or perceptual overlap, also contributes to the difficulties in vowel discrimination. Further research is required to test the reliability of the present findings and to establish whether the identified patterns are also detected in speech production

Drama Translation as Social Practice: The Case of George Bernard Shaw’s Dramatic Work in Arabic

This thesis attempts to investigate how George Bernard Shaw’s drama has been represented and negotiated in Arabic translation through identifying the socio-cultural and political factors including poetics, patronage, capital, field properties, and censorship practices that conditioned its introduction, production, dissemination and reception. Drawing on concepts from Pierre Bourdieu’s social practice theory and Lefevere’s rewriting theory, the Arabic translations of Shaw’s drama are studied as a socially regulated activity rather than merely linguistic as previously researched. The study aims at analysing the Arabic translations meant for various media against the backdrop of their different contexts textually, contextually and paratextually. After setting out the key problems and strategies and other issues related to drama translation from the perspectives of both translation and theatre studies, the study gives a historical background to the introduction and development of drama in the Arab culture in which translation played a major role. It identifies the socio-cultural and political influences that motivated the translation or rewriting of Shaw’s drama in different time and place. A mapping of both the published drama translations in the twentieth century and of the published material on Shaw in various areas (i.e. academia; reading, stage and radio translations; and cinema and TV adaptations) are provided in tables and charts. Different Arabic stage rewritings of Shaw’s Pygmalion have been analysed in order to determine the different forces in the contexts where they operate that affect their forming. These rewritings range from 1969 to 2017 in Egypt and Lebanon. Then, eight plays by Shaw with their Arabic translations and retranslations are also analysed to identify the socio-cultural and political dynamics that informed their shaping and the reasons behind the presence of multiple retranslations

Beirut Speaks : New Graffiti Sub-Cultures of Beirut, Lebanon

Modern graffiti is an ever-present part of urban space. It has become globalized and has adapted to different environments and social contexts. Today in Beirut, Lebanon a phenomenal street art movement is infiltrating public space. This particular movement questions the common understandings that have constructed Western graffiti artists and graffiti culture for so long. A new group of street artists is working to make the art form more inclusive of Beirut\u27s many communities by writing messages that speak to the whole of Lebanon. They are making their work known in the presence of law enforcement, different sects, and generations. How does an art form that has long been considered as matter out of place get transformed into an empowering feature of the city? What does this say about how societies differ in defining art and deviance? And furthermore, what does this street art movement accomplish in the complicated and dynamic environment of Beirut, Lebanon

Annual Report, 2010

Program Director: Tom Paradise, 2005-2009; Joel Gordon, 2009

IS KUWAIT TV DIGLOSSIC? A SOCIOLINGUISTIC INVESTIGATION

Diglossia is a sociolinguistic term refers to the use of two varieties of one language in a given community; one is regarded as the high variety and the other as a low variety. This paper is a qualitative study thatinvestigates diglossia in various Kuwaiti TV stations. It attempts to mainly see if the two varieties are used differently whenever there is a change of topic in TV programs. Topics investigated include news, programs discussing political issues, cooking, sports, religion, and fashion. The researchers made sure that all programs chosen for investigation are presented by Kuwaitis. Data collected for this study relied mainly on observations and videotaping which took five months duration. Data was then phonetically transcribed and qualitatively analyzed.Speech extracts indicating the use of either H or L variety are demonstrated where necessary. The analysis showed that diglossia extensively exists in all the Kuwaiti TVchannels under investigation. Such a study may, to some extent, draw some generalizations about diglossia in Kuwait due to the fact that these channels present a variety of diglossic behaviors in different settings by different Kuwaiti speakers

Generating acceptable Arabic Core Vocabularies and Symbols for AAC users

This paper discusses the development of an Arabic Symbol Dictionary for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) users, their families, carers, therapists and teachers as well as those who may benefit from the use of symbols to enhance literacy skills. With a requirement for a bi-lingual dictionary, a vocabulary list analyzer has been developed to evaluate similarities and differences in word frequencies from a range of word lists in order to collect suitable AAC lexical entries. An online bespoke symbol management has been created to hold the lexical entries alongside specifically designed symbols which are then accepted via a voting system using a series of criteria. Results to date have highlighted how successful these systems can be when encouraging participation along with the need for further research into the development of personalised context sensitive core vocabularies