Ibrahim M R Al-Shaer | ALQUDS OPEN UNIVERSITY (original) (raw)
Papers by Ibrahim M R Al-Shaer
ABSTRACT This study addresses research questions concerning the reality and formation of ‘grammat... more ABSTRACT This study addresses research questions concerning the reality and formation of ‘grammatical’ prototypes, and how prototype theory relates to ‘constructional grammar’. Three main approaches are used: (1) a two-stage analysis of the possessive-genitive construction (PG) in the spoken component of the British National Corpus, examining the internal linguistic aspects of the construction, and its referential values; (2) three experiments, the first testing the claim that prototypicality is applicable to grammatical categories, based on data collected from 105 British undergraduates, and the second two looking at complementary aspects of the flexibility inherent in grammatical constructions and the complexity of their internal and external aspects, using data collected from 80 British undergraduates; and (3) an in-depth theoretical analysis of prototypicality as a grammatical tool. From the corpora analyses, apart from the hazards of the frequency factor, it is concluded that there is more to the PG construction than what descriptive accounts of prototypes offer. Much of its semantic interpretation depends on context, world knowledge, and even the cognitive processes of interlocutors. So, the need for cognitive accounts of prototypes is stressed. The first experiment shows that prototype structure of grammatical categories constrains subjects’ processing times. However, the detected within-category variance suggests that the interaction between particular lexical items and the construction is not controlled for. This finding, along with other findings (i.e. a weaker version of compositionality, gestalt perception, idiosyncracy, integrity of linguistic and non-linguistic information, etc.), underlines the need for a constructional grammar. The second and third experiments test for sensitivity to manipulations of the constituent elements of the PG construction and contextual information. The systematic way in which the typicality ratings pattern provides further evidence that the prototype structure constrains our grammatical knowledge. But the high sensitivity of these ratings to changing contexts reveals the ad hoc character of this prototype structure and thus its inadequacy for grammar. These considerations lead us to reject the prototype as a grammatical tool and thus Goldberg’s (1995) version of Construction Grammar in favour of the Fillmore-Kay version (FKG), which is proposed as a supplementary linguistic tool to prototype theory. It is argued that while FKG, as a constrained grammatical tool, identifies which constructions fall within the lattice of a certain grammatical category, prototype theory, as a ‘post-grammatical’ grading device, identifies which of the constructs building from FKG descriptions is central or peripheral.
Arab World English Journal, 2016
International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2014
Languages in Contrast, 2014
It is well documented that there is a one-to-many relationship between Arabic and English genitiv... more It is well documented that there is a one-to-many relationship between Arabic and English genitival constructions. However, it is unclear whether, given this syntactic variation, such constructions show equivalence in semantic function. For this purpose, a corpus-based contrastive analysis of these genitive constructions in a bilingual novel is carried out. As a prelude to a quantitative and qualitative inspection of the data, the (non)interchangeability of the alternative English genitives is determined by eliciting intuitive judgments from 10 linguistically naïve native speakers of British English. Quantitatively, the study shows that the Arabic genitive almost covers the semantic functions expressed by the various English genitives found in the corpus. Qualitatively, the study reveals that the flexibility derived from the English genitive variation, as opposed to the fixed word order of the Arabic genitive, allows the speaker to convey additional meaning. However, the Arabic geni...
This study addresses research questions concerning the use of third-person pronouns by native and... more This study addresses research questions concerning the use of third-person pronouns by native and non-native speakers of English. For this purpose, a corpus-based analysis of these pronouns in naturally-occurring data was carried out, highlighting the different constraints that cause writers to choose one pronoun over another. Then, thirteen sentences with tricky third-person pronouns taken from the IBM-Lancaster Associated Press corpus were presented in writing to two groups of native and non-native speakers of English. The results indicated that most native speakers choose third-person pronouns depending on the socio-cultural context and pragmatic factors, showing an inclination to bend the formal rule of pronoun-antecedent agreement. However, the majority of non-native speakers had a tendency to abide by the prescriptive rule of pronoun-antecedent agreement, showing little or no sensitivity to context. The study concluded that pronoun-antecedent agreement has proven to be an area...
The main goal of this study was to empirically examine the impact of Arabizi (i.e. writing Arabic... more The main goal of this study was to empirically examine the impact of Arabizi (i.e. writing Arabic with English script) on Palestinian students' Arabic language development. This article seeks to enter the debate over the merits and risks of widespread Arabizi use with a quantitative study of its effects on Arab students. In order to assess whether internet use and Arabizi use affect performance in Arabic fluency, we administered an Arabic spelling test, followed by a brief survey assessing students' use of Arabizi to 420 eighth grade students in Bethlehem government schools. The overall results show that using Arabizi was correlated with weaker scores on the spelling test, indicating either that Arabizi use harms students Arabic capabilities or that other factors cause students to use Arabizi and to have weak Arabic spelling skills. However, more research must be done to tease out these differences and look beyond correlation.
The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of employing concept mapping at a pre-writ... more The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of employing concept mapping at a pre-writing stage on English as a foreign language (EFL) students' ability to generate better argumentative essays. Thirty-eight participants were randomly assigned to two groups participating in Writing II course at Al-Quds Open University (QOU). Both groups had the same teacher. The control group received instruction as required in the textbook only, and the experimental group were additionally required to construct concept maps at the pre-writing stage and compose essays based on the constructed maps. All participants were required to sit for pre-and post-tests to track their writing performance before and after the experimental group took a tutorial on how to create concept maps. After the implementation of the intervention, comparison of the students' mean scores of the pre-and post-tests showed a statistically significant improvement in the experimental students' ability to generate better argumentative essays in terms of point of view, unity and coherence, development, organization, and thinking. The results highlight the effectiveness of employing concept mapping as a focused instructional strategy at the pre-writing stage in developing EFL students' writing skill. Pedagogical implications for using concept mapping in EFL writing classes are considered.
A corpus-based contrastive analysis of patterns and equivalence
This study addresses research questions concerning the use of third-person pronouns by native and... more This study addresses research questions concerning the use of third-person pronouns by native and non-native speakers of English. For this purpose, a corpus-based analysis of these pronouns in naturally-occurring data was carried out, highlighting the different constraints that cause writers to choose one pronoun over another. Then, thirteen sentences with tricky third-person pronouns taken from the IBM-Lancaster Associated Press corpus were presented in writing to two groups of native and non-native speakers of English. The results indicated that most native speakers choose third-person pronouns depending on the socio-cultural context and pragmatic factors, showing an inclination to bend the formal rule of pronoun-antecedent agreement. However, the majority of non-native speakers had a tendency to abide by the prescriptive rule of pronoun-antecedent agreement, showing little or no sensitivity to context. The study concluded that pronoun-antecedent agreement has proven to be an area where it is difficult to draw a line between standard and non-standard usage.
This study attempted to examine how both English and Arabic realize certain speech acts, mainly a... more This study attempted to examine how both English and Arabic realize certain speech acts, mainly authoritative speech acts, promising and thanking. For this purpose, an analysis of spontaneous naturally-occurring utterances comprised of declaratory speech acts, commissives, and thanking in both English and Arabic was conducted. In the light of this analysis, the study highlighted interesting differences displayed by the two languages as to how they realize the given speech acts at the level of structures and lexical items used. The study also showed that cross-cultural and pragmalinguistic characteristics of Arabic speech acts as compared with their counterparts in English are of paramount importance for sociolinguistic, contrastive, semantic and translation studies.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of using blended learning (BL) in teachin... more The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of using blended learning (BL) in teaching/learning a reading comprehension course on English as a foreign language (EFL) students' attitudes and motivation. Twenty-seven students taking Reading I class at Al-Quds Open University (QOU) participated in the study. The class received instruction through a blended learning module (i.e. a mix of both conventional and computer-assisted methods). Participants were required to complete pre-and post-questionnaires to track their attitudes and motivation before and after employing computer-based activities. After the implementation of the intervention, comparison of the students' mean scores of the pre-and post-questionnaires showed a statistically significant improvement in the students' attitudes and motivationtoward learning English and employing computer-based activities.
The purpose of this study is twofold: (i) to examine the extent to which English native speakers'... more The purpose of this study is twofold: (i) to examine the extent to which English native speakers' abide by the grammar rule of concord that the verb must agree with its subject in number, and (ii) to highlight the implications of the obtained results for EFL teaching/learning process. For this purpose, a test consisting of 23 concord items was devised and presented orally and in writing to two different groups of English native speakers. The results showed that the majority of native speakers do not actually follow the formal rule of concord and resort to other kinds of concord under the pressure of semantic content. These findings have pedagogical implications for EFL teaching/learning process. EFL teachers, when teaching grammar, should take into consideration not only what traditional grammars say but also what native speakers actually say.
This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using new technologies in teaching/learning EFL at... more This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using new technologies in teaching/learning EFL at Al-Quds Open University (QOU). For this purpose, two questionnaires were developed and distributed amongst fourth-year English major students and (33) EFL tutors. The study revealed that most EFL tutors and students at QOU felt highly motivated, had the basic computer skills, showed strong preference, and pinned high expectations on using new technologies in their EFL classes. According to the study, about half of EFL tutors and students had easy access to computers. But the majority of them highlighted the scarcity of educational software, and EFL students expressed more concern than their tutors about time limitations. Although EFL tutors and students found the technologies available in their study centers motivating and auxiliary for developing their learning tools and language skills, active use of new technologies in EFL learning/teaching is not satisfactory, and the levels of confidence in the currently-used print materials and methods are still strong. In the light of these mixed results, theoretically speaking, the ground seems to be paved for QOU administration to embark on the project of incorporating e-learning into its EFL teaching-cum-learning process. However, practically speaking, given the technical, economic, social, and cultural constraints brought up by some EFL students, the study recommends that QOU should, at least at this early stage, combine new technologies with the current mode of teaching and learning. Using such a blend with its EFL learners, QOU can give them the freedom to choose their preferred media. Once the required technologies, efficient Internet services and educational software of high quality are all secured, and EFL tutors and students become properly trained and accustomed to using new technologies, more daring steps towards the integration of new technologies into EFL learning/teaching at the expense of currently used methods can be taken.
This study is meant to examine the impact of the Tawjihi English Exam (TEE) on the practices of E... more This study is meant to examine the impact of the Tawjihi English Exam (TEE) on the practices of English language teachers and students in the writing classroom in Palestine. For this purpose, two questionnaires were distributed among 439 students and 49 teachers, and semi-structured interviews were held with 5 teachers.
Books by Ibrahim M R Al-Shaer
ABSTRACT This study addresses research questions concerning the reality and formation of ‘grammat... more ABSTRACT This study addresses research questions concerning the reality and formation of ‘grammatical’ prototypes, and how prototype theory relates to ‘constructional grammar’. Three main approaches are used: (1) a two-stage analysis of the possessive-genitive construction (PG) in the spoken component of the British National Corpus, examining the internal linguistic aspects of the construction, and its referential values; (2) three experiments, the first testing the claim that prototypicality is applicable to grammatical categories, based on data collected from 105 British undergraduates, and the second two looking at complementary aspects of the flexibility inherent in grammatical constructions and the complexity of their internal and external aspects, using data collected from 80 British undergraduates; and (3) an in-depth theoretical analysis of prototypicality as a grammatical tool. From the corpora analyses, apart from the hazards of the frequency factor, it is concluded that there is more to the PG construction than what descriptive accounts of prototypes offer. Much of its semantic interpretation depends on context, world knowledge, and even the cognitive processes of interlocutors. So, the need for cognitive accounts of prototypes is stressed. The first experiment shows that prototype structure of grammatical categories constrains subjects’ processing times. However, the detected within-category variance suggests that the interaction between particular lexical items and the construction is not controlled for. This finding, along with other findings (i.e. a weaker version of compositionality, gestalt perception, idiosyncracy, integrity of linguistic and non-linguistic information, etc.), underlines the need for a constructional grammar. The second and third experiments test for sensitivity to manipulations of the constituent elements of the PG construction and contextual information. The systematic way in which the typicality ratings pattern provides further evidence that the prototype structure constrains our grammatical knowledge. But the high sensitivity of these ratings to changing contexts reveals the ad hoc character of this prototype structure and thus its inadequacy for grammar. These considerations lead us to reject the prototype as a grammatical tool and thus Goldberg’s (1995) version of Construction Grammar in favour of the Fillmore-Kay version (FKG), which is proposed as a supplementary linguistic tool to prototype theory. It is argued that while FKG, as a constrained grammatical tool, identifies which constructions fall within the lattice of a certain grammatical category, prototype theory, as a ‘post-grammatical’ grading device, identifies which of the constructs building from FKG descriptions is central or peripheral.
Arab World English Journal, 2016
International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2014
Languages in Contrast, 2014
It is well documented that there is a one-to-many relationship between Arabic and English genitiv... more It is well documented that there is a one-to-many relationship between Arabic and English genitival constructions. However, it is unclear whether, given this syntactic variation, such constructions show equivalence in semantic function. For this purpose, a corpus-based contrastive analysis of these genitive constructions in a bilingual novel is carried out. As a prelude to a quantitative and qualitative inspection of the data, the (non)interchangeability of the alternative English genitives is determined by eliciting intuitive judgments from 10 linguistically naïve native speakers of British English. Quantitatively, the study shows that the Arabic genitive almost covers the semantic functions expressed by the various English genitives found in the corpus. Qualitatively, the study reveals that the flexibility derived from the English genitive variation, as opposed to the fixed word order of the Arabic genitive, allows the speaker to convey additional meaning. However, the Arabic geni...
This study addresses research questions concerning the use of third-person pronouns by native and... more This study addresses research questions concerning the use of third-person pronouns by native and non-native speakers of English. For this purpose, a corpus-based analysis of these pronouns in naturally-occurring data was carried out, highlighting the different constraints that cause writers to choose one pronoun over another. Then, thirteen sentences with tricky third-person pronouns taken from the IBM-Lancaster Associated Press corpus were presented in writing to two groups of native and non-native speakers of English. The results indicated that most native speakers choose third-person pronouns depending on the socio-cultural context and pragmatic factors, showing an inclination to bend the formal rule of pronoun-antecedent agreement. However, the majority of non-native speakers had a tendency to abide by the prescriptive rule of pronoun-antecedent agreement, showing little or no sensitivity to context. The study concluded that pronoun-antecedent agreement has proven to be an area...
The main goal of this study was to empirically examine the impact of Arabizi (i.e. writing Arabic... more The main goal of this study was to empirically examine the impact of Arabizi (i.e. writing Arabic with English script) on Palestinian students' Arabic language development. This article seeks to enter the debate over the merits and risks of widespread Arabizi use with a quantitative study of its effects on Arab students. In order to assess whether internet use and Arabizi use affect performance in Arabic fluency, we administered an Arabic spelling test, followed by a brief survey assessing students' use of Arabizi to 420 eighth grade students in Bethlehem government schools. The overall results show that using Arabizi was correlated with weaker scores on the spelling test, indicating either that Arabizi use harms students Arabic capabilities or that other factors cause students to use Arabizi and to have weak Arabic spelling skills. However, more research must be done to tease out these differences and look beyond correlation.
The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of employing concept mapping at a pre-writ... more The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of employing concept mapping at a pre-writing stage on English as a foreign language (EFL) students' ability to generate better argumentative essays. Thirty-eight participants were randomly assigned to two groups participating in Writing II course at Al-Quds Open University (QOU). Both groups had the same teacher. The control group received instruction as required in the textbook only, and the experimental group were additionally required to construct concept maps at the pre-writing stage and compose essays based on the constructed maps. All participants were required to sit for pre-and post-tests to track their writing performance before and after the experimental group took a tutorial on how to create concept maps. After the implementation of the intervention, comparison of the students' mean scores of the pre-and post-tests showed a statistically significant improvement in the experimental students' ability to generate better argumentative essays in terms of point of view, unity and coherence, development, organization, and thinking. The results highlight the effectiveness of employing concept mapping as a focused instructional strategy at the pre-writing stage in developing EFL students' writing skill. Pedagogical implications for using concept mapping in EFL writing classes are considered.
A corpus-based contrastive analysis of patterns and equivalence
This study addresses research questions concerning the use of third-person pronouns by native and... more This study addresses research questions concerning the use of third-person pronouns by native and non-native speakers of English. For this purpose, a corpus-based analysis of these pronouns in naturally-occurring data was carried out, highlighting the different constraints that cause writers to choose one pronoun over another. Then, thirteen sentences with tricky third-person pronouns taken from the IBM-Lancaster Associated Press corpus were presented in writing to two groups of native and non-native speakers of English. The results indicated that most native speakers choose third-person pronouns depending on the socio-cultural context and pragmatic factors, showing an inclination to bend the formal rule of pronoun-antecedent agreement. However, the majority of non-native speakers had a tendency to abide by the prescriptive rule of pronoun-antecedent agreement, showing little or no sensitivity to context. The study concluded that pronoun-antecedent agreement has proven to be an area where it is difficult to draw a line between standard and non-standard usage.
This study attempted to examine how both English and Arabic realize certain speech acts, mainly a... more This study attempted to examine how both English and Arabic realize certain speech acts, mainly authoritative speech acts, promising and thanking. For this purpose, an analysis of spontaneous naturally-occurring utterances comprised of declaratory speech acts, commissives, and thanking in both English and Arabic was conducted. In the light of this analysis, the study highlighted interesting differences displayed by the two languages as to how they realize the given speech acts at the level of structures and lexical items used. The study also showed that cross-cultural and pragmalinguistic characteristics of Arabic speech acts as compared with their counterparts in English are of paramount importance for sociolinguistic, contrastive, semantic and translation studies.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of using blended learning (BL) in teachin... more The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of using blended learning (BL) in teaching/learning a reading comprehension course on English as a foreign language (EFL) students' attitudes and motivation. Twenty-seven students taking Reading I class at Al-Quds Open University (QOU) participated in the study. The class received instruction through a blended learning module (i.e. a mix of both conventional and computer-assisted methods). Participants were required to complete pre-and post-questionnaires to track their attitudes and motivation before and after employing computer-based activities. After the implementation of the intervention, comparison of the students' mean scores of the pre-and post-questionnaires showed a statistically significant improvement in the students' attitudes and motivationtoward learning English and employing computer-based activities.
The purpose of this study is twofold: (i) to examine the extent to which English native speakers'... more The purpose of this study is twofold: (i) to examine the extent to which English native speakers' abide by the grammar rule of concord that the verb must agree with its subject in number, and (ii) to highlight the implications of the obtained results for EFL teaching/learning process. For this purpose, a test consisting of 23 concord items was devised and presented orally and in writing to two different groups of English native speakers. The results showed that the majority of native speakers do not actually follow the formal rule of concord and resort to other kinds of concord under the pressure of semantic content. These findings have pedagogical implications for EFL teaching/learning process. EFL teachers, when teaching grammar, should take into consideration not only what traditional grammars say but also what native speakers actually say.
This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using new technologies in teaching/learning EFL at... more This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using new technologies in teaching/learning EFL at Al-Quds Open University (QOU). For this purpose, two questionnaires were developed and distributed amongst fourth-year English major students and (33) EFL tutors. The study revealed that most EFL tutors and students at QOU felt highly motivated, had the basic computer skills, showed strong preference, and pinned high expectations on using new technologies in their EFL classes. According to the study, about half of EFL tutors and students had easy access to computers. But the majority of them highlighted the scarcity of educational software, and EFL students expressed more concern than their tutors about time limitations. Although EFL tutors and students found the technologies available in their study centers motivating and auxiliary for developing their learning tools and language skills, active use of new technologies in EFL learning/teaching is not satisfactory, and the levels of confidence in the currently-used print materials and methods are still strong. In the light of these mixed results, theoretically speaking, the ground seems to be paved for QOU administration to embark on the project of incorporating e-learning into its EFL teaching-cum-learning process. However, practically speaking, given the technical, economic, social, and cultural constraints brought up by some EFL students, the study recommends that QOU should, at least at this early stage, combine new technologies with the current mode of teaching and learning. Using such a blend with its EFL learners, QOU can give them the freedom to choose their preferred media. Once the required technologies, efficient Internet services and educational software of high quality are all secured, and EFL tutors and students become properly trained and accustomed to using new technologies, more daring steps towards the integration of new technologies into EFL learning/teaching at the expense of currently used methods can be taken.
This study is meant to examine the impact of the Tawjihi English Exam (TEE) on the practices of E... more This study is meant to examine the impact of the Tawjihi English Exam (TEE) on the practices of English language teachers and students in the writing classroom in Palestine. For this purpose, two questionnaires were distributed among 439 students and 49 teachers, and semi-structured interviews were held with 5 teachers.