Designing an Arabic speaking and listening skills e-course: resources, activities and students’ perceptions

his paper presents a fully online course model for teaching speaking and listening skills for students learning Arabic as a foreign language at the International Peace College South Africa on the NEO learning management platform. It also investigates the students' attitudes towards the course. The course was developed by the researcher during the first semester of 2020. This period coincided with South Africa’s first wave of COVID-19, and the country’s first strict lockdown. The syllabus consists of three components: Listening, speaking and conversational Arabic. It includes various technology-enhanced activities and resources which were developed by using LMS features, Web 2.0 tools, and e-learning specifications such as Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). The integration of technology in the course is based on an approach that combines Bloom's taxonomy and Technology Integration Matrix (TIM). Apart from the description of the course, this study used a thirty-item questionnaire to investigate the attitudes of thirty-one learners who participated in the course. They answered questions about the course’s resources, activities as well as its impact on their language skills. Results from the questionnaire revealed that the respondents' attitudes towards the online course were positive and statistically significant at p <.05. The design and the approach adopted in this study can apply to any context of language teaching. It provides a myriad of technology-enhanced activities that can be effectively used to teach listening and speaking skills virtually. Foreign language teachers can adopt this approach in its entirety, or with idiosyncratic modifications to design their language courses, irrespective of the virtual learning ecology (VLE) they use

The use of corpora in translation into the second language: A project-based approach

This manuscript investigates to what extent the use of corpora could help translation trainees while translating from Arabic into English and vice versa. Forty Yemeni trainees, who were enrolled in an advanced course in Arabic-English translation during the academic year 2020, participated in the study. They participated in translation projects from which the data for this study was collected, using thinking aloud protocols and computational observation. The translation process was investigated using the translation process software Transalog, an eye-tracking software and the screen recording software Screen-O-Matic. This kind of computational observation enabled a researcher to discover the extent to which the participants were able to employ corpora in their translation projects

Enhancing instrumental competence in translator training in a higher education context: A task-based approach

Abstract—This study aims to design a task-based e-Course for teaching computer-aided translation technology in a higher education context. It also investigates the impact of the e-Course on enhancing the instrumental competence of trainees, as reflected from their use of translation products. This study employs mixed qualitative and quantitative methods using descriptive statistics, pre-post paired sample tests, and an analysis of the translation process. Results of the paired-sample tests showed a noticeable increase in the scores of trainees. The difference in means between the pre and post-tests is statistically significant at P < 0.05. The descriptive statistics of errors have also shown that translation errors decreased dramatically after completing the e-Course. Analysis of the translation process indicated that trainees developed a noticeable mastery over translation competence when employing various CAT tools in the translation process

Translating Yemeni cartoons into English: A Systemic Functional Linguistics approach

This study deals with the problems involving translating Arabic cartoons into English and the strategies that can be adopted by a translator to make them more accessible and more target-audience friendly. It uses an approach based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL; Halliday 1985/1994; Halliday and Matthiessen 2004). The concept of equivalence is revisited within the framework of SFL to include register analysis and the three strands of meaning or metafunctions. The study is based on a number of Yemeni cartoons that have been translated in the Yemen Times, a prominent English-language Yemeni newspaper. The study concludes that if a cartoon is to be translated in such a way that the target cartoon sounds as natural and entertaining to the target audience as the original, the translator should take into account the context of culture, the context of situation (i.e., register analysis) and the metafunction(s) involved in the source cartoon and tries to render them as far as possible in the target language. In addition, a cartoon is a multi-semiotic genre in which both text and image go hand in hand. The image-text semantic relation in this multi-model discourse can facilitate the comprehension of the context and the interpretation of the schemata of the cartoons more clearly. The translation of a cartoon cannot be achieved unless the two codes are considered.Keywords: Cartoon; translation; equivalence; SFL; context; register; metafunction; ideational; interpersonal; textua

A taxonomy of problems in arabic-english Translation: a systemic functional Linguistics approach Tawffeek abdou

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDWorking with Arab students pursuing a degree in English Language and Translation at the Taiz University, Republic of Yemen, has brought to the researcher‟s attention a number of errors or problems encountered in Arabic to English translation. This study aims to investigate the problems encountered by student translators (STs), novice translators (NTs) as well as more experienced translators (Ts) while translating from Arabic into English. The study starts with the assumption that Arabic and English belong to different families of languages and thus there is rarely a word-for-word equivalence in both languages. The present study is cross-sectional in nature. It is based on empirical data collected from several categories of translators. In other words, the data was collected from fourth-year students in the department of English and Translation in the Faculty of Arts, Taiz University, as well as five NTs who have previously graduated from this department and are currently working in a number of accredited translation offices in Taiz. The study also investigates the challenges faced by Ts. For this purpose, a novel, a tourist brochure, an editorial, and three academic abstracts all translated by established publishing houses and translation centres in and outside Yemen are examined. These texts are analyzed to determine to what extent the problems faced by STs and NTs reoccur in published translations produced by Ts. For its conceptual framework, the study adopts an eclectic approach that does not stick rigidly to a particular paradigm but rather draws upon multiple linguistic and translation theories. However, it is mainly based on Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and the problems have been classified along his taxonomy of meaning metafunctions into ideational, interpersonal and textual. Extra-textual problems are also analyzed. Several SFG-based translation models such as Hatim and Mason‟s (1990) sociometic model, House‟s (1977, 1997) translation quality assessment model, Hervey et al. (1992) register analysis model and Baker‟s (1990) equivalence model are also employed in the study to help the researcher examine the problems encountered in Arabic-English translation within those four categories. In addition, Nord‟s functional model to translation which is based on Skopos theory is also taken into consideration although to a minimum extent. In addition to the analysis of translations produced by various categories of translators, the study uses several triangulation research tools such as questionnaire, Thinking Aloud Protocols (TAPs), retrospective interviews, and classroom observation. These tools are employed to assist the researcher to identify the possible causes for the problems the STs, NTs, and Ts experience from the perspective of the participants themselves. The current translation programme at Taiz University is also analyzed to determine to what extent it contributes to the poor performance of the student translators and would-be translators. The study concludes that STs, NTs and even Ts encounter several problems at the ideational, interpersonal and textual levels. They also encounter problems at the extra-textual stratum. The study attributes these problems to structural and cultural differences between the two languages, the reliance on the dictionary rather than the meaning in use of lexical items, the differences in the cohesion and coherence systems of Arabic and English, the negligence of the role of context in translation as well as unfamiliarity with text-typologies and genre conventions. In other words, participants follow a bottom-up approach in translation and come close to the source text translating it literally. This approach is very damaging because it ignores the fact that the three metafunctions might be realized differently in the two languages. Furthermore, the study concludes that the manner in which translation is taught at Taiz University as well as the syllabus contribute mainly to the lack of translation competence of the student translators and would-be translators. The programme is inadequate and it needs urgent review and improvements. The present syllabus does not keep abreast with the latest theoretical and practical developments in the discipline of translation as well as neighbouring disciplines such as contrastive linguistics, text-analysis, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and the like. As for methodology, the study concludes that it is the transmissionist (teacher-centred) teaching approach rather than the transformational (learner-centred) which is commonly used in teaching translation. As a result, the read-and-translate approach dominates the scene and no tasks, activities, or projects are given to the STs. The study provides some recommendations, which if implemented, can be useful in enabling Yemeni and Arab universities to improve the competence among student translators in order to improve translation teaching at academic level. A major contribution of this study is the description and classification of translation problems in Arabic-English translation on the basis of meaning systems. Unlike traditional descriptive error analysis, which is widely used to analyze the translation product, SFG-based text analysis provides a systematic description of translation problems which allows a precise articulation of the nature of problems that would otherwise be explained simply as translations which “sound unnatural or awkward” (Kim 2008; Yallop 1999). As far as the researcher knows, no study in the Arab world has yet tackled translation problems from this perspective. Other studies have tackled deviated forms produced by students or translators using an error analysis technique rather than a holistic approach based on solid theoretical knowledge. In other words, while most other studies focused on specific „errors‟ and error analysis and ended at that, the present study does not only looks at „errors‟ as „difference‟ (from contrastive analysis) but rather from several perspectives. It is also more comprehensive by triangulating several sources of data and pooling them together for a more informed understanding

An exploration of student interpreters’ attitudes towards the undergraduate interpreting training programmes at Yemeni universities

This study investigates the attitudes of trainee interpreters towards their training programmes at Yemeni universities. 61 interpreters in Taiz province participated in the study. A 16-item questionnaire was designed to explore their attitudes towards their programmes. The findings of this study show that the interpreters are not satisfied with the current programmes. The results also show that the programme does notadequately enhance the interpreting competence of would-be interpreters. The programme is mainly concerned with the enhancement of the linguistic and cultural competencies, paying less attention to other components of interpreting competence such as instrumental, psycho-physiological, and strategic. The results also show that respondents are not satisfied with the content of instructional modules, activities used in the training, the time allocated for practicums, and the amount of technology integration. This study has also investigated the interpreting directionality of beginner and advanced student interpreters at Al-Saeed University by quantitatively analysing their final scores in interpreting modules. Beginner and advanced groups in the current study demonstrate different levels of interpreting competence in both directions. The results from various statistical tools show that student interpreters, whether beginners or advanced, are more competent to interpret into their mother tongue, while very few of them show balanced skills in both directions. Additionally, the overall scores of beginner and advanced student interpreters in both directions do not reflect the expected level of proficiency

Mandela in the Arabic media: A transitivity analysis of Aljazeera Arabic website

The paper uses an eclectic approach combining systemic functional linguistics (SFL), critical discourse analysis (CDA) and corpus linguistics to reveal how Mandela is presented in the Arab Media. SFL and CDA enable the researchers to explore the ideological and attitudinal bases underlying the selection of particular discourse structures for the realization of transitivity, that is, the ideational meaning in the texts/corpus. Specifically, the paper unravels process types, that is, material, relational, mental and verbal processes in data from Aljazeera’s Arabic website to account for the manner Mandela as a participant is presented compared to other participants, and the kinds of participant roles ascribed to him. The paper shows that material processes covering actions and events in which Mandela is the main agent and actor are by far the most frequently used type of processes in the corpus. Additionally, the discourse structures appear deliberately selected not only for sentimental reasons, but also to evoke readers’ sympathy regarding his wife’s infidelities and his hospitalisation, and also to induce appreciation for the man who endured 27 years for the freedom of his people and yet held no grudges against those incarcerated him. We conclude that Mandela is constructed in such a way that he is the focal point on which the Arab world could look for moral inspiration, reformation and reconciliation in the face of adversities resulting from religious, political and socio-economic turmoil

The topoi of Mandela's death in the Arabic speaking media: A corpus-based political discourse analysis

The present study attempts a political discourse analysis of a spoken Arabic corpus on the death of Nelson Mandela. The corpus mainly consists of the coverage of some Arabic-speaking TV channels that was broadcasted in the aftermath of the announcement of Nelson Mandela’s death in 2013. The discourse-historical approach was employed with a view to finding out the various topoi and ideologies deployed in the corpus. For this purpose, the spoken corpus used in this study was first transcribed using EUDICO Linguistic Annotator (ELAN), a transcription tool for multimodal texts. Afterward, the corpus was compiled using Sketch Engine to enable researchers to process the data automatically and hence to use different computational tools that can assist in finding the various topoi. A computational analysis using collocations, wordlists, N-grams, and concordance features can provide a more precise analysis of the various topoi in context and hence to uncover the ideologies of participants/politicians

Online Assessments for Reflection within a Large Class: A Case Study of English for Educational Development Law Students at the University of the Western Cape

This study reports on the use of online assessments in English for an Educational Development module for law students at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. It highlights the benefits of using the method of an online test to manage and enable learning by reflection in a large class setting. The design and development of online materials and assessment activities is based on a theoretical and conceptual framework that stems from the main schools of learning, namely behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism, and alternative assessment. Upon the completion of the course, a survey of 12 questions was given to 530 students to determine the benefits and challenges they experienced while completing their online test within a formative and reflective context. The adoption of e-Learning practices to enhance teaching and learning was explored and has shown its advantages. Results revealed that this method enables students to engage with learning materials, stay motivated, and test their own understanding of meaningful knowledge in the English language especially in the Law context.  It is evident that the use of online methods for testing are beneficial for a large class context as in this case. It makes the learning and management thereof easier for both the learner and educator and accommodates different learning styles. Apart from the advantages, the findings of this study included some ethical and technical challenges and disadvantages of online assessments

Towards a technology-enhanced blended approach for teaching Arabic for Shari’ah purposes (ASP) in the light of the South African national qualifications framework

The study investigates the use of a blended learning approach for teaching Arabic as a foreign language at a South African Islamic college in the light of the South African National Qualifications Framework level descriptors and their critical cross-field outcomes. In particular, the approach has been used for teaching a Module in an undergraduate BA programme during the second semester of the academic year 2018-2019 at the International Peace College South Africa (IPSA). The college adopts a content and language integrated approach for teaching Arabic. The study concluded that the use of a technology-enhanced blended approach using Web 2.0 tools and Learning Tools (with full) Interoperability (LTI 2.0) (e.g. gamification) plays a vital role in motivating the learners and in the achievement of critical cross-field outcomes of each NQF level including, subject knowledge, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, teamwork and self-management among others. The study is part of an action research project that also includes the design of a syllabus for teaching Arabic for S ri’ purposes in the South African context and the attitudes of learners towards it