Arabic-English code-mixing by Jordanian university students

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Goethe, n.d. cited in Stavans & Hoffmann, 2015, p. 135) This research examines the linguistic phenomenon of code-mixing by students at three public universities in North Jordan: Al alBayt University, University of Jordan and Yarmouk University. It seeks to document the perspectives of Jordanian university students on Arabic–English code-mixing. Furthermore, the research stresses the importance of three purposes of code-mixing: (a) social: using English words to convey a social message and/or to avoid using socially unacceptable expressions in Arabic; (b) linguistic: using English expressions which Arabic language lacks and/or whose Arabic equivalents are not commonly used; and (c) realisation of field of discourse: using English when expressing scientific terms. The focus of this research is on oral communication by Jordanian university students. This research utilizes qualitative and quantitative research methods. Applying a mixed-methods approach, the participants’ use of English words in their Arabic speech is investigated via a survey questionnaire and semi-formal interviews. The participants are Bachelor, Masters and PhD students studying in various faculties: Humanities, Science, Economics, Islamic Studies, Medicine and Education. The results show that male students tend to mix English with Arabic in their speech for linguistic reasons more often than female students, but the latter tend to use English for social reasons more often than male students. Students who live in a city tend to use English more than those living in rural areas when they use the language for linguistic or scientific purposes. Students attending a university in the capital city tend to have higher self-perceived competence in English than those in the other two cities. To investigate Jordanian students’ use of English as a second language, these three factors – social, linguistic and (realisation of) field of discourse – were considered to yield the best outcomes

Clinical characteristics and treatment outcome of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Saudi Arabia: A multi-institutional retrospective national collaborative study

Background: Treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has been available in Saudi Arabia (SA) for over 30 years; however, only limited data have been published from there. This study was conducted to establish processes for collaborative data collection and provide clinical characteristics and outcome of children with ALL in SA.Procedure: Clinical data for patients diagnosed from 2004 to 2008 were retrospectively collected at eight institutions and entered remotely into a custom-built database. Statistics regarding clinical and genetic characteristics and treatment outcome were calculated.Results: The 594 evaluable patients had a median age of 4.37 years and 56.4% were boys. Majority of patients had B-precursor ALL while 10.7% had T-ALL. CNS leukemia was present in 5.2% of patients. The distribution of common genetic abnormalities was similar to that reported from western populations, with 24.6% hyperdiploidy, 21% RUNX1-ETV6 positivity, 4.2% BCR-ABL1 positivity, and 2.5% with MLL gene rearrangement. Patients received risk-adapted therapy according to various protocols, although treatment strategies for the majority were similar. Five-year OS, RFS and EFS were 86.9%, 79.1%, and 73.3%, respectively. The OS for patients with pre-B ALL was significantly higher than for T-ALL (88.0% vs. 71.8%; P = 0.019, Log-Rank test). Patients with pre-B ALL categorized as low-risk by NCI/Rome criteria and those with hyperdiploidy had OS of 93.4% and 95.8%, respectively.Conclusions: The characteristics of childhood ALL in SA are similar to those observed in developed countries. Future prospective studies utilizing unified national protocols are needed to further improve the outcome of our patients