L2 Arabic Teachers’ Attitude toward the Communicative Language Teaching at King Abdulaziz University

Second language acquisition (SLA) researchers, language teachers and teacher trainers aim to develop an approach through which languages are effectively taught in the classroom. This paper provides an overview of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) including its definition, advantages and disadvantages as well as some criticisms made against it. It aims to investigate L2 Arabic teachers’ attitude towards CLT at King Abdulaziz University. The current data were assembled via teachers’ questionnaire. It was found out that in spite of revealing the agreements in the majority of the statements which infers a positive attitude towards CLT, the participants stated that CLT is not suitable and preferable. Several explanations were provided to justify this statement. The provided explanations led to assume that the unsuitability and the dispreference of CLT are built on practical constraints which could be overcome

What are the Motivations for undertaking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Practices in the Middle-East? A Critical Literature Review

Corporate social responsibility henceforth CSR as a practice that involves doing well and doing good to the society cuts across countries cultures and corporations The CSR activities embarked upon by were mainly of philanthropic nature that is social actions not aimed at profitability or improved financial performance Literature established that the motivations for undertaking CSR differs across continents and corporations because of the influence history cultural norms and philosophies The purpose of this chapter is to discuss different motivations for undertaking CSR practices in the Middle- East with a view enriching the literature with emerging facts and richer understanding of social actions from non-Western hemisphere The authors adopt a qualitative research method by extracting new understanding on the meanings cultural context of CSR and motivations for CSR in the Middle-East using a critical literature review CLR The chapter found five 5 key motivations for CSR in the Middle-East namely religious economic social environmental and globalisation factor

IDENTIFYING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEEDS OF RELIGIOUS GUIDES AT THE GENERAL PRESIDENCY OF THE GRAND MOSQUE AND PROPHET’S MOSQUE

This study aims at identifying English language needs for religious guides at The General Presidency of The Grand Mosque and Prophet’s Mosque. This study adopted a quantitative approach methodology using needs analysis questionnaire. The quantitative data collection instrument was a questionnaire with (51) participants. SPSS was used as the quantitative data analysis method. Findings showed that listening and speaking were the most important skills, and reading was moderately important, while writing is not important at all. Also, English is greatly rated as a tool to effectively perform their tasks in term of preaching and advising guests and pilgrims. Difficulties are embodied in lacking English language, accents, and proper religious expressions and vocabulary. This study highlights an urgent need for English for Religious Purposes. The study proposes a general guideline for a course design framework based on participants’ needs

Modelling the Economic and Political Factors of Optimum Currency Area Theory for the Adoption of the Single Currency Project in Gulf Cooperation Council

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is an organisation that has for a long time had a regional policy to create an economic as well as a political bloc. The theory of optimum currency areas provides the economic foundation for this research. Previous studies focused largely on the eight prerequisites of an optimum currency area. Political events in the Gulf region for the decade up to 2016 have underscored the importance of political factors in delaying the commencement of a single currency area in the GGC member nations. Therefore, this research looks at the political and historic factors affecting greater economic integration. To achieve a better understanding of the economic and political context and relationships the research uses a mixed research methodology. The qualitative research aspect uses an interview instrument for data collection, with content analysis as the technique for data analysis. The quantitative research segment relies on secondary data from the GCC and international financial agencies, and tests for cointegration. Cointegration tests are an econometric technique, which allows the testing of hypotheses, and the cointegration of economic relationships contained in a model involving non-stationary stochastic variables. The cointegration test is able to determine a stable long-term relationship among multiple economic series/variables (Shin, 1994); it is valuable for testing and estimating macroeconomic model where long-run relationships among variables affect present/future observed values. As a contribution to optimum currency theory and economic integration, the research proposes a politico-economic framework (PEF) as the ideal framework for understanding the dynamics of the common currency agenda in the Arab Gulf Region with specific reference to the GCC. The research contributes to an existing body of knowledge on a GCC single currency region by providing the empirical evidences for delay in implementing a single currency. The delay of a single currency is mainly due to political factors. Regarding the economic factors the study found that there are indications of cointegration among the factors; while the political factor has a complex dynamic linked to fear of losing autonomy over monetary and fiscal policy measures and fear of surrendering sovereignty to supra-national institutions on the one hand compared to security concerns. On the other hand, the finding indicates that there is a strong historical pressure supporting the concept of a single currency system in the Gulf States because of its religious and cultural connection to Muslim countries based on the Dinar currency. The research concludes with far reaching recommendations on the circumstances needed to carry forward the GCC single currency. The main finding in this thesis is that the delay in achieving the single currency is purely due to lack of political will not the economic convergence in the GCC countries

Exploring the theological foundation of Corporate Social Responsibility in Islam, Christianity and Judaism for Strengthening Compliance and Reporting: An Eclectic Approach

Religion in the contemporary times has potentials from which conventional models and theories could leverage for public wellbeing. Considering the moral and ethical dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR), understanding this nebulous concept from the religious lenses could help strengthen CSR compliance and reporting in the industrial societies, where religions play direct and indirect role in corporate governance and people‘s lifestyle. This paper explores eclectic sources to provide answer to the questions: Does CSR have theological foundation in Islam Christianity and Judaism? Can religions strengthen CSR and fortify compliance and reporting? The authors sourced the required qualitative data from journal articles, Islamic jurisprudence, Judaic sources and Biblical texts as well as relevant online resources on the subject. The extractions from eclectic sources were subjected to content analysis from which conclusions on the two questions were established. The findings indicate that CSR has theological foundation in the three religions, and religious ethics and values could be potent drivers for strengthening CSR and reporting

The Acquisition of Grammatical Gender in Arabic Demonstratives by English Native Speakers

Recently, an increase interest in the acquisition of grammatical gender by second language (L2) learners has been revealed. This paper investigated the acquisition of Arabic, a language that has a rich grammatical gender system, by speakers of a first language (L1) that does not have gender (English). Arabic demonstrative pronouns selected as the linguistic feature to be investigated. Due to the gender differentiations, Arabic has nearly ten demonstrative pronouns whereas English has four demonstrative pronouns. Consequently, learnability considerations, the Full Transfer/Full Access (FT/FA) hypothesis presumes that English learners of Arabic will have the ability to acquire L2 grammatical gender despite the absence of these systems in their L1. However, the Failed Functional Features (FFF) hypothesis predicts that English learners of Arabic cannot acquire these systems since they are not available in their L1. This paper investigated the ability of English learners of Arabic in acquiring the Arabic demonstrative pronouns with their gender as accurate as native speakers of Arabic do. Moreover, does the proficiency level play a role in the acquisition of demonstratives? Finally, which hypothesis will be supported by the findings? It was found that L2 learners did not acquire the phenomenon as accurate as the native speakers did. Furthermore, proficiency level played a role in the acquisition of demonstratives as a significant disparity between L2 learners’ levels was appeared. Finally, the current outcomes could be attributed to FT/FA hypothesis

A Bidirectional Study of the Earlier Acquisition of Dative Structures in English and Arabic

This article conducts a bidirectional investigation of the earlier acquisition of dative structures in English and Arabic by Second Language (L2) learners. It reports on two dative structures: the Prepositional Dative (PD) structure and the Double Object Dative (DOD) structure, rating experiments (grammaticality judgment task) to test which dative structure is preferred earlier by L2 learners and whether L2 learners transfer their preferences relating to the two dative structures in the First Language (L1) to their L2. A total of 50 Arab learners of English and 40 English learners of Arabic were tested for the purpose of this study. It was observed that Arab learners of English preferred the PD structure over the DOD structure, whereas English learners of Arabic showed a slight preference for the use of the DOD structure; however, this observation is statistically insignificant. These findings indicate a lack of L1 influence, as all L2 learners preferred a dative structure that does not correspond to the preferred structure in their L1. Such findings could be consistent with the idea of the language acquisition process, as proposed by the Processability Theory, which implies that constructions that are easiest to process will be learned earlier than those that are harder to process despite the convergences between L1 and L2

ROLE OF THE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF CARDIAC MEASURES AND DECLINING OF COMORBIDITIES.

Background: Regular physical activity (PA) can prevent many non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes mellitus (DM). The present study aimed to assess the health benefits of physical activities including blood pressure and comorbid conditions. Methodology: This is a prospective cohort case-control study that recruited 300 Saudi volunteers living in the city ofHail, Northern Saudi Arabia. Results: Out of 300 participants 155(51.7%) were males and 145 (48.3%) were females. There were 111(37%) participants committed to regular physical activity and the remaining 189(63%) without a defined commitment to physical activity (Uncommitted). Among 111 persons who claimed a commitment to regular physical activity (committed), 61(55%) were males and 50(45%) were females. The majority of committed individuals were at the age group 21-25 years followed by age group 26-30 and 31-35 years representing 32, 30, and 20 persons, respectively. The physical activity was highly practiced at the age range 21-30 years and this was found to be statistically significant P < 0.001. Conclusion: There is a low prevalence of physical activity in Hail region, particularly among females, which necessitates the suggestion of appropriate awareness programs. Younger and elder populations are in much need to be targeted with PA awareness programs

Targeting Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus encoded protease (ORF17) by a lysophosphatidic acid molecule for treating KSHV associated diseases

Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is causative agent of Kaposi’s sarcoma, Multicentric Castleman Disease and Pleural effusion lymphoma. KSHV-encoded ORF17 encodes a protease which cleaves -Ala-Ala-, -Ala-Ser- or -Ala-Thr-bonds. The protease plays an important role in assembly and maturation of new infective virions. In the present study, we investigated expression pattern of KSHV-encoded protease during physiologically allowed as well as chemically induced reactivation condition. The results showed a direct and proportionate relationship between ORF17 expression with reactivation time. We employed virtual screening on a large database of natural products to identify an inhibitor of ORF17 for its plausible targeting and restricting Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus assembly/maturation. A library of 307,814 compounds of biological origin (A total 481,799 structures) has been used as a screen library. 1-oleoyl-2-hydroxy-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1′-myo-inositol) was highly effective against ORF17 in in-vitro experiments. The screened compound was tested for the cytotoxic effect and potential for inhibiting Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus production upon induced reactivation by hypoxia, TPA and butyric acid. Treatment of reactivated KSHV-positive cells with 1-oleoyl-2-hydroxy-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1′-myo-inositol) resulted in significant reduction in the production of Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus. The study identified a lysophosphatidic acid molecule for alternate strategy to inhibit KSHV-encoded protease and target Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus associated malignancies