Arab Learners Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.2, 2014 Pp.167... more

Word spellings are often a common linguistic issue among Arabic-speaking learners of English, and English vowels are one of the most difficult to resolve. Therefore, the study presented vowel instruction as an intervention to address this issue by determining its effect on the spelling performance on monosyllables and bi-syllables. Vowel instruction sessions were then offered to 15 university freshman students for two months. Instructional strategies consisted of teaching vowel pronunciation, vowel letter-to-sound relationships, vowel spelling patterns, word-breaking, and providing various spelling opportunities. To measure overall spelling performance, pre-test and post-test on vowel spellings were conducted which revealed a significant increase in the mean scores. This suggests that vowel instruction was facilitative in the improved spelling performance on monosyllabic and bi-syllabic words, with more misspellings in the latter than in the former. The strategies used were generally perceived as beneficial, and it is recommended that including them in language lessons could improve vowel spelling skill and minimize English vowel confusions. Moreover, constant exposure of learners to many English words and more spelling activities are still necessary for better English vowel recognition and whole word spelling.

- by Arab World English Journal (AWEJ)
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- Strategies, Arab Learners, English vowels, Spelling Performance

The purpose of this study to present the findings of research conducted to challenges faced by Saudi English as foreign language (EFL) learners and to formulate some strategies to overcome their speaking difficulties. In Saudi Arabia, there is a widely held perception that it is possible for the EFL learners to attain the high levels of proficiency in writing reading and listening, but they cannot speak English as compared to their peers from around the globe. This is quite concerning as these students have selective and compulsory English courses that run through their almost ten years of compulsory school education. The challenges to speaking by these students had formerly been addressed by sorting out the challenges of deficiencies in teacher development and teacher education, learners' autonomy lack of material and technology in the EFL classes and anxiety in learning a foreign language. The purpose is to seek answers to the challenges of speaking English from the Saudi speaking EFL students themselves. In order to do that a sample of 66 students who have enrolled in year one of intensive preparatory English class will be used. A mixed method research design will be used in the triangulation of the findings for higher validity. Quantitative data will be analyzed with software for data analysis while qualitative data will be analyzed by making use of descriptive analysis. The findings will help to identify the reasons why speaking English is a challenge for Saudi EFL students which will help in the formulation of strategies to overcome such challenges. Cite as: Kashmiri, H. A.(2019). Communication challenges: Saudi EFL Speaking Skills and strategies to overcome speaking difficulties. (M.A.Thesis).

- by Arab World English Journal (AWEJ)
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- Sociocultural Theory, Factors, ANXIETY, Communicative Approach

This paper aims to study Arab students’ use of English relative pronoun ‘who’ via translating statements from their mother tongue (Arabic) into the target language (English). Thirty Saudi adult students, aged 18-20 years old, were asked to translate 20 relative clauses from Arabic into English. The results revealed that the students encountered various problematic areas in the use of relative pronoun 'who', viz. use of personal and possessive relative pronoun, position of relative pronoun, presence of resumptive pronouns in Arabic, absence of duality and plurality of relative pronoun “who”, and use of relative pronouns with prepositional verbs. Such problematic areas were manifested in various errors of omission, addition, selection, word order, and avoidance. The results also showed that the average of the students’ errors in “avoidance, omission, and selection” were significantly higher than (30 %. 25%. and 24% respectively) the average for ‘addition’ and ‘word order’. These errors could be attributed to language transfer, overgeneralization, and ignorance of rules restriction, which were possibly grounded in the lack of exposure to the TL rules and insufficient practice of grammatical activities. Pedagogical implications of this study suggest that instructors should make a good use of the recommendations of contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) and Error Analysis (EA). Namely, the students should be made aware of the areas of similarities and differences between English and Arabic practically rather than theoretically. The study stresses the limitations of the findings and directs outlines for future
Research

Due to the variety of their local dialects and accents, Arab learners occasionally face some problems when pronouncing English letters and phonemes. These pronunciation errors are caused by the influence of native language interference. Each language in any part of the world has its linguistic characteristics and rules that control their pronunciation and even word-formation process, which distinguishes them from those of other nations. Modern linguists described this phenomenon as verbal behaviors because, by the end of a special stage of a child's growth, it becomes as constant customs. As a consequence, generations inherit these verbal qualities from their ancient without having any choices to make a linguistic formation in particular. As they work to develop their English language fluency, Arabic ESL students, for instance, face several pronunciation difficulties such as adding or replacing new phonemes that do not exist in the target language. The linguistic differences between Arabic and English usually have a crucial impact on how simply a learner can study to form the English letter sounds.

- by Arab World English Journal (AWEJ)
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- Inventory, Pronunciation, Phonemes, Arab Learners

Many ESL/EFL students in Lebanon reach the university level with poor English in general and underdeveloped phonetic competence in particular. Phonetic competence is one of the abilities to communicate regarding pronunciation skills (Saz, Rodríguez, Lleida, Rodríguez, & Vaquero, 2011). Students in Lebanon acquire Arabic as their mother tongue. Some learn English as their second language (ESL) in schools where English is the medium of instruction. However, in French schools, students learn English as their foreign language (EFL) and study the content subject matters in French, the medium of instruction. It's commonly known among many educators in Lebanon that French educated students develop their English language skills and proper pronunciation more perfectly than do their English educated fellows in middle/low class schools. This phenomenon is widely observed; however, it is not based on research findings. This study aims to investigate whether there is a difference among French and English educated students in terms of English pronunciation after intervention of pronunciation learning strategies (PLS) such as using phonetic symbols and transcriptions, repeating after the teacher/others, and minimal pair drilling. 22 EFL and ESL university students took part in this study. A checklist of frequent common pronunciation mistakes was used to collect data. Ten sounds (segments) were identified in the pretest as common mistakes. The post-test took place five weeks later. Findings showed that PLS improved the pronunciation of both EFL and ESL learners. However, there was no statistical difference in the improvements between these two groups. Limitations and recommendations are provided in this study.

- by Hanadi Mirza
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- Teaching English as a Second Language, Phonology, Action Research, Lebanon

This study is meant to phonologically analyze the English phonotactics in the English of Arab learners of English as a foreign language to determine the types of pronunciation difficulties they encounter. More specifically, it investigates the types of declusterization processes found in their interlanguage and the sources of such processes. The results of this study demonstrate that Arab learners of English unintentionally insert an anaptyctic vowel in the onset as well as in the coda of certain English syllables. Results also show that the major reason for declusterization processes is the mother tongue influence. In order to overcome such difficulties, this paper suggests a new approach for teaching and learning L2 syllable structure system.

- by Dr Emad M Al-Saidat
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- Engineering, Second Language Acquisition, Languages and Linguistics, English

- by Dr Emad M Al-Saidat
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- Engineering, Second Language Acquisition, Languages and Linguistics, English

This paper aims to identify errors committed by Arab learners of English as a foreign language in the area of inflectional morphology. Errors are classified according to their type in comparison with what seems to be correct in the target language. In order to pinpoint the areas of difficulty and find what makes these areas difficult, the researcher classified errors with reference to their sources into intralingual, interlingual, ambiguous and other errors. The paper also aims at finding possible solutions for the difficulties learners encounter when learning a foreign language in general and English language in particular in a way that would help teachers overcome such difficulties when teaching English to Arab students. It concludes that learners‟ mother tongue plays a minor role as the interlingual errors constitute less than 25 % of the total number of learner errors; whereas, other factors such as overgeneralization and learning strategies play a major role in learning a forei...

This paper aims to identify errors committed by Arab learners of English as a foreign language in the area of inflectional morphology. Errors are classified according to their type in comparison with what seems to be correct in the target language. In order to pinpoint the areas of difficulty and find what makes these areas difficult, the researcher classified errors with reference to their sources into intralingual, interlingual, ambiguous and other errors. The paper also aims at finding possible solutions for the difficulties learners encounter when learning a foreign language in general and English language in particular in a way that would help teachers overcome such difficulties when teaching English to Arab students. It concludes that learners’ mother tongue plays a minor role as the interlingual errors constitute less than 25% of the total number of learner errors; whereas, other factors such as overgeneralization and learning strategies play a major role in learning a foreig...

- by Hanadi Mirza
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- Teaching English as a Second Language, Phonology, Action Research, Lebanon

Authorial presence in academic writing is a fluid and multi-faced concept with its construction a troublesome challenge for both L1 (first language) and L2 (second language) writers of English. Authorial presence is particularly challenging for NNSs (Non-Native Speakers) who tend to avoid overly presenting their ideas, expressions and thoughts in their writing. This paper uses a specialized corpus of 45 student essays from a female multidisciplinary university in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to identify and examine the presence and use of first person pronouns in shaping the author's presence in academic writing. Findings show that learners use a wide range of first person pronouns to show their presence in academic texts and that these pronouns partner important verb, noun and prepositional phrases to achieve varying degrees of authorial power and presence. The paper concludes with pedagogic implications and suggestions for EAP (English for Academic Purposes) writing instructors who hope to tackle the use and function of first person pronouns more confidently in their classrooms.

- by Arab World English Journal (AWEJ)
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- Academic Writing, Corpora, Arab Learners, authorial presence
- by Mutahar Qassem
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- Psychology, Language Acquisition, Linguistics, Language Transfer