Asmaa Shehata | University of Utah (original) (raw)

Papers by Asmaa Shehata

Language teaching research, Mar 3, 2024

Learning and Teaching Pronunciation in Diverse Contexts

Pronunciation research has recently focused on investigating teacher beliefs and classroom practi... more Pronunciation research has recently focused on investigating teacher beliefs and classroom practices of English and other language instructors. Yet few studies have explored teacher beliefs about pronunciation feedback for learners of Semitic languages. This study aimed to explore Arabic teacher cognitions of corrective feedback (CF) on pronunciation errors and their classroom practices. Data were collected from teachers of Arabic using two different tasks: semi-structured interviews (n=10) and classroom observations (n=5). The results demonstrated that all teachers believed in the significance of CF in improving the comprehensibility of learners' speech. Observations also showed that teachers used both explicit and implicit feedback techniques such as explicit metalinguistic information, and implicit recast to correct learners' pronunciation of individual phonemes. Comparing teachers' stated beliefs and teaching practices revealed some differences that reflect teachers' relative lack of awareness of the amount and types of CF they tend to provide.

This study addressed the role of talker variability in the perception of nonnative contrastive ph... more This study addressed the role of talker variability in the perception of nonnative contrastive phonemes by adult second language (L2) learners who had no prior knowledge with the target language. Specifically, the study explored how training with varying talkers could affect native English speakers’ acquisition of the Arabic pharyngeal-glottal contrast, which is not distinctive in their native language. The present study also examined the effects of task type on learners’ word recognition ability. To accomplish this, the present study included two main experiments: Experiment 1 (nonlexical task) and Experiment 2 (lexical task). Sixty adult native speakers of English (with no Arabic experience) participated in the two experiments, 30 subjects in each experiment who were randomly assigned to either a singleor multiple-talker word learning groups. Subjects in the two experiments were presented with nine nonword minimal pairs where six pairs contrasted the Arabic /ħ/ and /h/ phonemes an...

The study is quantitative research, examining the effects of learning environment and native lang... more The study is quantitative research, examining the effects of learning environment and native language (L1) on the collocational knowledge of advanced Arab users of English as a second language (ESL) (n=34) and foreign language (EFL) (n=33). The participants were university students who completed two collocation tests, containing verb-noun and noun-adjective congruent (collocations with L1-L2 translation equivalents) and incongruent (L2-specific) collocations. The results showed that the two groups markedly differed in their collocational knowledge (both productively and receptively), with the ESL participants performing significantly better than the EFL students. As to the effects of the native language, the results revealed that the ESL participants experienced noticeable effects of Arabic both receptively and productively with the influences being significantly stronger for the incongruent collocations (L2-only) than the congruent ones (L1-L2). Interestingly, the EFL participants ...

This chapter explores adult native English speakers' ability to distinguish and accuratel... more This chapter explores adult native English speakers' ability to distinguish and accurately produce Arabic consonant contrasts and examines the relationship between learners' perception and production skills. It explores the learnability of Arabic consonant contrasts by examining the perception and production accuracies among native speakers of English from different Arabic instruction levels. Modern Standard Arabic includes a number of consonant sounds that represent a substantial challenge for English learners. Prior research has mainly focused on exploring adult L2 learners' perception and production of novel Arabic segments independently. The production task took place first in order not to expose the participants to auditory input involving the target stimuli. Learning a second language entails, among other things, acquiring its phonology. This seems to be a feasible task for young L2 language learners who start acquiring the second language by 6 years of age and subsequently achieve native-like proficiency.

International Education Studies, 2021

The present study examines the impact of both short vowels and context on adult native English sp... more The present study examines the impact of both short vowels and context on adult native English speakers’ reading accuracy of Arabic orthography. To this end, two groups of adult Arabic learners with different proficiency levels were recruited: 30 second-year, and 30 third-year learners. Subjects were instructed to read 50 isolated words, 20 sentences and 10 paragraphs in two different reading conditions: vocalized and unvocalized. Findings demonstrated a significant positive influence of both short vowels and context on second-year learners’ word recognition of the target stimuli. That is, second year Arabic learners had better accuracy when reading vocalized texts compared to unvocalized ones and were significantly more accurate at reading paragraphs and sentences than isolated words. However, third-year students’ reading accuracy was only significantly affected by the reading context.

– This paper examines the awareness and perceptions of 107 adult native English speakers residing... more – This paper examines the awareness and perceptions of 107 adult native English speakers residing in the US regarding the importance and difficulty of Arabic consonant phonemes in both perception and production, as well as their beliefs about the essential factors in the acquisition of Arabic consonant sounds. All subjects completed a questionnaire that included three main sections on their background information, awareness and beliefs. Findings show that learners tend to consider Arabic as an important language with a number of difficult consonant sounds. While the pharyngeal and the pharyngealized consonant phonemes are found to be difficult to perceive and produce, all learners consider the fricative pharyngeal-glottal phoneme contrast to be the most difficult Arabic consonant contrast to acquire. It is also found that learners believe individual motivation, conduct with native speakers, and listening to the radio and television are the most influential factors in the acquisition...

The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Second Language Acquisition , 2018

This chapter explores adult native English speakers' ability to distinguish and accurately produc... more This chapter explores adult native English speakers' ability to distinguish and accurately produce Arabic consonant contrasts and examines the relationship between learners' perception and production skills. It explores the learnability of Arabic consonant contrasts by examining the perception and production accuracies among native speakers of English from different Arabic instruction levels. Modern Standard Arabic includes a number of consonant sounds that represent a substantial challenge for English learners. Prior research has mainly focused on exploring adult L2 learners' perception and production of novel Arabic segments independently. The production task took place first in order not to expose the participants to auditory input involving the target stimuli. Learning a second language entails, among other things, acquiring its phonology. This seems to be a feasible task for young L2 language learners who start acquiring the second language by 6 years of age and subsequently achieve native-like proficiency.

The present study examines the impact of both short vowels and context on adult native English sp... more The present study examines the impact of both short vowels and context on adult native English speakers' reading accuracy of Arabic orthography. To this end, two groups of adult Arabic learners with different proficiency levels were recruited: 30 second-year, and 30 third-year learners. Subjects were instructed to read 50 isolated words, 20 sentences and 10 paragraphs in two different reading conditions: vocalized and unvocalized. Findings demonstrated a significant positive influence of both short vowels and context on second-year learners' word recognition of the target stimuli. That is, second year Arabic learners had better accuracy when reading vocalized texts compared to unvocalized ones and were significantly more accurate at reading paragraphs and sentences than isolated words. However, third-year students' reading accuracy was only significantly affected by the reading context.

This study aims to shed light on pronunciation instruction by exploring teachers' beliefs and cla... more This study aims to shed light on pronunciation instruction by exploring teachers' beliefs and classroom practices regarding pronunciation teaching. In particular, the study investigates the relationship between Arabic language teachers' beliefs and their current pedagogical pronunciation practices. Data were collected from two groups of subjects (two teachers of Arabic and their 16 students) using different tasks: interviews, class observations, and questionnaires. The result analysis reveals the most frequently used pronunciation techniques in the two different classrooms and how both teachers and students perceived them presenting a brief overview of the way pronunciation is taught in Arabic classrooms illuminating teachers' tendencies and needs.

... 2 cross-linguistic influences resulting in errors, over-production, underproduction, miscomp... more ... 2 cross-linguistic influences resulting in errors, over-production, underproduction, miscomprehension, and other effects that constitute a divergence between ... and writing using the target language ... and the influence of L1, Arabic, on the use of English collocations by advanced ...

The purpose of this study was to investigate how training with varying talkers could affect nativ... more The purpose of this study was to investigate how training with varying talkers could affect native English speakers’ acquisition of the Arabic pharyngeal-glottal consonant contrast that is not contrastive in English. Learners’ performance on two discrimination tasks, following a word-learning phase was analyzed in terms of training type (multiple talkers vs. single talker) and task type (non-lexical vs. lexical). Findings of the two experiments revealed the significant effect of training type. That is, the multiple-talker groups in the two experiments performed more accurately on the two AXB tasks than did the single-talker groups. This finding suggests that variability in talkers may be a significant factor that affects learners’ ability to distinguish words on the basis of L2 consonant contrasts. Additionally, the results exhibited differences in the scores of subjects on the two discrimination tasks among the different groups, which were found to be insignificant, suggesting that the distinct demands of the two tasks did not have a significant beneficial effect on learning the nonnative contrastive sounds.

This paper examines the awareness and perceptions of 107 adult native English speakers residing i... more This paper examines the awareness and perceptions of 107 adult native English speakers residing in the US regarding the importance and difficulty of Arabic consonant phonemes in both perception and production, as well as their beliefs about the essential factors in the acquisition of Arabic consonant sounds. All subjects completed a questionnaire that included three main sections on their background information, awareness and beliefs. Findings show that learners tend to consider Arabic as an important language with a number of difficult consonant sounds. While the pharyngeal and the pharyngealized consonant phonemes are found to be difficult to perceive and produce, all learners consider the fricative pharyngeal-glottal phoneme contrast to be the most difficult Arabic consonant contrast to acquire. It is also found that learners believe individual motivation, conduct with native speakers, and listening to the radio and television are the most influential factors in the acquisition of Arabic consonants. However, the other individual abilities such as ability to mimic and musical ears are reported to be less effective factors. Insights, implications of the results, and directions for future research are provided.

Book Reviews by Asmaa Shehata

W We ed d J Ja an n 1 18 8 2 20 01 17 7 R Re ev vi ie ew w: : A Ar ra ab bi ic c, , S St ta an nd... more W We ed d J Ja an n 1 18 8 2 20 01 17 7 R Re ev vi ie ew w: : A Ar ra ab bi ic c, , S St ta an nd da ar rd d; ; E En ng gl li is sh h; ; A Ap pp pl li ie ed d L Li in ng g; ; L La an ng g A Ac cq qu ui is si it ti io on n: : A Al l--M Ma ah hr ro oo oq qi i, , D De en nm ma an n (

Language teaching research, Mar 3, 2024

Learning and Teaching Pronunciation in Diverse Contexts

International Education Studies, 2021

The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Second Language Acquisition , 2018

The present study examines the impact of both short vowels and context on adult native English sp... more The present study examines the impact of both short vowels and context on adult native English speakers' reading accuracy of Arabic orthography. To this end, two groups of adult Arabic learners with different proficiency levels were recruited: 30 second-year, and 30 third-year learners. Subjects were instructed to read 50 isolated words, 20 sentences and 10 paragraphs in two different reading conditions: vocalized and unvocalized. Findings demonstrated a significant positive influence of both short vowels and context on second-year learners' word recognition of the target stimuli. That is, second year Arabic learners had better accuracy when reading vocalized texts compared to unvocalized ones and were significantly more accurate at reading paragraphs and sentences than isolated words. However, third-year students' reading accuracy was only significantly affected by the reading context.