Aforeign Language Research Articles

Learning Transfer and Universal Grammar: The Case of Arabic as a Foreign Language

This Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL) is considered a parsimonious field in applied linguistics. Therefore, this article tries to highlight how language transfer influences American students in their Arabic learning process. Additionally, this work attempts to explore whether Arabic foreign learners rely on their pre-existing knowledge to learn Arabic and determine the role of transfer regarding language universals. The study employs a quantitative methodology based on a Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT) to achieve its objective. According to the study's results, L2 Arabic learners initially transfer their L1 setting to L2. In other words, Universal Grammar (UG) exists, but learners only have indirect access to it via their L1. By studying and investigating the influence of language transfer on learning outcomes, experts' and educators’ interventions can be tailored to more effectively assist foreign students in overcoming errors connected to their first language and improving their proficiency in learning Arabic language.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO TEACHING WRITING SKILLS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES: A COMPREHENSIVE LITERATURE REVIEW

This study examined the efficacy of an integrated method for teaching writing skills in foreign languages. The hypothesis suggests that an integrated method is superior to traditional methods in fostering language acquisition and development. A comprehensive literature review was performed utilizing scientific literature analysis and analytical-synthetic methods to assess the existing research on the effectiveness of integrated writing instruction. According to the findings, providing integrated writing instruction demonstrates substantial progress in writing proficiency, grammar, vocabulary acquisition, and comprehensive language development, particularly in the context of teaching Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) at the tertiary level. Moreover, integrated writing instruction encourages a more holistic and communicative approach to language learning by engaging students in authentic writing tasks and developing their skills in meaningful contexts. The potential benefits of incorporating technology and multimedia resources into integrated writing instruction are also discussed, as these tools can enhance learning experience and facilitate language development. However, the effectiveness of integrated writing instruction may vary depending on the specific context and needs of the learners, and some studies suggest that it may not be as effective for all learners or situations. Further research is needed to understand these variations and to develop more targeted instructional approaches. The findings of this review article provide strong evidence of the effectiveness of an integrated approach to teaching writing skills in foreign languages, highlighting its importance in meeting the evolving demands of language education in a globalized world. However, it is important to note that the effectiveness of integrated writing instruction may vary depending on the specific context and needs of learners. Some studies have found that integrated writing instruction may not be as effective for all learners or in all situations, and further research is needed to understand these variations and develop more targeted instructional approaches.

Exploring normal vs. service translators’ orientation in rendering realia in The Holy Qur’an

Abstract Realia has always been thought of as a great challenge for translators. The native language and cultural background of a translator can be a factor potentially affecting the selection of equivalents and translation procedures. This paper aims to explore whether being a normal or a service translator would have any effect on adopting source- or target-oriented translation procedures. ‘Service translators’ are those who translate into a foreign language, while ‘normal translators’ are those who translate into their mother language. In other words, normal translators should be target-language native translators. The corpus includes the realia extracted from The Holy Qur’an and its four English translations by two service translators (Abdel-Haleem 2005 and Starkovsky 2005) and two normal translators (Arberry 1955 and Abu Nasr 1985). The data were analyzed on the basis of Liang’s (2016) model. Findings revealed that the normal translators showed a slightly greater tendency (1%) towards source-oriented procedures than the service translators. On the other hand, target-oriented procedures adopted by the service translators exceeded those of the normal translators by 0.50%.

A STUDY OF ADULT ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES AND INTEREST TOWARDS THE USE OF AUDIOBOOKS IN FOREIGN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

This paper aims at presenting a survey conducted in 2022 among adults learning English as a foreign language, which explores their attitudes and interest in listening to audiobooks for the purpose of learning English as a foreign language. This study was provoked by the increase in the popularity of audiobooks in the last few years especially during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022. It covers the age group of adult learners who are educated both in the formal education system and outside of it. 280 adults, who have studied, are studying or are fluent in English, from different parts of Bulgaria and those who live abroad have taken part in the survey. It includes two sections with the total number of 25 multiple questions. The results of the survey emphatically show that audiobooks are not a popular teaching tool for learning English, which confirms the current situation regarding the implementation of audiobooks in foreign language teaching, although academic sources reveal abundant evidence of their effectiveness in developing all language competences at all levels of language proficiency. The outcomes of the conducted survey could serve English language teachers as a starting point for the wider use and dissemination of listening to audiobooks as a method of teaching English as a foreign language.

Literary back-translation, mistranslation, and misattribution

Abstract This study seeks a threefold exploration of an aspect of Mark Twain’s forays into translation, particularly with respect to one tale’s fate in its first French version. First, back-translation’s most ostensible purpose is to represent a foreign language text’s (in)accuracy transparently; Twain, assuming a persona as a naive mistranslator, humorously reinvents the procedure to disparage a rendering of his work, constituting an act of translation (meta)criticism and producing a work of parody. The study turns to literary back-translation as an emerging horizon of translation “against our teleological conception of translation” (Lane 2020a, 6), and a potential source of creative misprision or misreading. Twain uses literalism, I demonstrate, as a comic strategy to confound sense. I show cases in which Twain indulged in pseudotranslation and free-associational mistranslation often as imaginative perspective-taking. Secondly, I survey the intrigue behind his famous back-translation of the jumping frog tale, including its textual variations, and locate it as a subversion. Thirdly and finally, I perform a comparative reading of representative passages from Twain’s story, the 19th-century translation by Theodor Bentzon (actually Marie-Thérèse Blanc), and Twain’s vengeful back-translation, in order to reveal patterns of the American writer’s translation technique.

Role of Learning Environment in Arabic as a Foreign Language in Saudi Arabia

The second-language learning environment (L2LE) plays an important role in successful second language (L2) learning achievement. Studies in English as a foreign language (EFL) found that when learners feel anxiety or negative emotions in the L2LE, it reduces their willingness to communicate (WTC), and this could impede their L2 achievement. Although it is likely that the L2LE has a similar impact on Arabic as a foreign language (AFL), there is a lack of research that focuses on the role of the Arabic L2LE. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has organized Arabic Learning Institutes (ALIs) that teach AFL to foreign students on government scholarship studying in KSA’s higher education institutions. The aim of this study was to develop, pilot, and evaluate the validity and reliability of an instrument to measure the influence of the Arabic L2LE in AFL learners at KSA’s ALIs. Using items and domains from existing instruments, a 32-item instrument was piloted among 140 ALI learners, with the data from 70 retained for analysis. Factor, reliability and correlation reduced items to 17 and revealed evidence of three independent subscales: classroom, teacher/curriculum, and personal anxiety toward L2 Arabic. Although ALI learners appeared motivated by classroom, teacher, and curriculum, their L2 achievement seemed impeded by anxiety, likely due to de-emphasis in classroom interaction in Arabic. Future research should be undertaken to improve the validity and reliability of the Arabic L2LE instrument, and to further investigate strategies to reduce anxiety and increase WTC in ALI learners.

Challenges of Writing in Arabic as a Foreign Language Context: Case of the Spanish School in Rabat

“Learning to write coherently... is something which many people never manage in their first language [and] the process is every bit as difficult in a second language” (Nunan, 1991, p.99). As such, interest in writing amongst applied linguists has increased quite importantly during the last two or three decades; soon, the discipline has rapidly and “clearly come of age thanks to the launch of several firsts in L2 writing” (Leki, Cumming & Silva, 2008, p.1). It is within this context and with the objective to uncover what challenges learners of Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) face while learning Arabic writing that this qualitative corpus study was conducted. Three prevalent challenges emerged: one was the students’ difficulty to spell Arabic words correctly; another emanated from their overall inability to learn the common Arabic order of syntactic constituents; and the other had to do with the challenge to write well-organized Arabic paragraphs.

Exploring the Ways Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL) Teachers Target Students’ Critical Thinking

<p><span lang="EN-US">Bloom’s taxonomy was created in 1956 by the educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom. It was created to promote higher-order thinking skills in the field of education, such as analyzing and evaluating concepts, procedures, and principles, rather than just retrieving facts. As a result, language teachers have access to varied ways to trigger and prompt students’ critical thinking by targeting their higher-order thinking skills. This qualitative research project explores how Moroccan AFL (Arabic as a Foreign Language) teachers target students’ critical thinking. This project focuses on the extent to which Moroccan AFL teachers trigger learners’ higher-order thinking skills, as well as the ways they target them. The research involved the observation of two lessons in a center of teaching Arabic as a foreign language. Three themes emerged from the data and were analysed</span><span>: <em>First</em>, adopting the role of critical thinking, namely the role of a guide and mediator, not as a teacher of knowledge. <em>Second</em>, using two ways of motivation: positive comments and repeating students' answers. <em>Third</em>, implement activities and questions that help students not to take things for granted.</span></p><p> </p><p><strong><span>Mengeksplorasi Cara Guru Pelajaran Arab sebagai Bahasa Asing (AFL) Menargetkan Pemikiran Kritis Siswa.</span></strong><span>Taksonomi Bloom yang diciptakan pada tahun 1956 Benjamin Bloom, psikolog pendidikan, bertujuan untuk mempromosikan keterampilan berpikir tingkat tinggi di bidang pendidikan, seperti menganalisis dan mengevaluasi konsep, prosedur, dan prinsip, bukan hanya mengambil fakta. Akibatnya, guru bahasa memiliki akses ke pelbagai cara untuk memicu dan mendorong pemikiran kritis siswa dengan menargetkan keterampilan berpikir tingkat tinggi mereka. Penelitian kualitatif ini mengeksplorasi bagaimana guru pelajaran Arab sebagai Bahasa Asing (AFL) Maroko menargetkan pemikiran kritis siswa, sehingga penelitian ini terfokus pada sejauh mana guru AFL Maroko memicu keterampilan berpikir tingkat tinggi peserta didik, serta cara mereka menargetkannya. </span><span lang="EN-US">Penelitian ini melibatkan </span><span>observasi terhadap </span><span lang="EN-US">dua pelajaran di pusat pengajaran bahasa Arab sebagai bahasa asing. </span><span>Penelitian </span><span lang="EN-US">ini menunjukkan cara seorang guru AFL Maroko menargetkan pemikiran kritis siswa</span><span>;</span><span lang="EN-US"> Pertama, mengadopsi peran berpikir kritis, yaitu peran sebagai pembimbing dan mediator, bukan sebagai guru sumber ilmu. Kedua, menggunakan dua cara motivasi, yaitu penggunaan komentar positif dan pengulangan jawaban peserta didik. Ketiga</span><span>,</span><span> <span lang="EN-US">menerapkan aktivitas dan pertanyaan yang membantu siswa untuk tidak menerima begitu saja.</span></span></p>

EFL teachers’ awareness of dyslexia

Abstract Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities among students, and teachers are often the very first to notice dyslexic students. It is therefore imperative that teachers be well-prepared to intervene appropriately and effectively once they encounter dyslexic students. The current study investigates teachers’ knowledge about the disorder in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Employing a questionnaire designed by Soriano et al. (2016), the study evaluates the awareness of dyslexia among 84 Iranian English teachers working in language institutes. The findings revealed that the majority of the teachers lacked adequate knowledge of the disorder but that they wished to learn more about this learning disability. Furthermore, the teachers’ awareness of the disorder was found to be independent of their demographic characteristics such as gender, previously completed programs, years of teaching experience, and experience with dyslexic students. The findings of this research can be informative for teacher educators, curriculum designers, and materials developers as there seems to be a need for revisions in teacher training curricula, instructional policies, and materials.

A descriptive study about language anxiety while learning English as a second language

Learning a second language has implications that go beyond cognitive processes. External factors such as the individual’s economic situation, and other intrinsic factors such as motivation, can influence the second language acquisition. With this study we seek to analyze the role anxiety can have in order to learn English as a foreign language. This work is based on a descriptive analysis which was applied to 1773 undergraduate students from a University of Guadalajara campus, and with this study we look forward obtaining information about the role of anxiety in learning English; in addition to identifying whether there are any differences in anxiety levels according to the major students are going to graduate from. It is intended to contribute to the knowledge related to the study of a second language, to determine what factors influence the development of language anxiety, and how it could be possible to work aiming to reduce it while ensuring that the students can learn a second language in a more effective and meaningful way.

AFL Teachers’ Reflective Practice in Indonesia: Connection Between Learning and Teaching | Al-Mumaarasah Al-In'ikaasiyyah li-Mu'allimiy Al-Lughah Al-'Arabiyyah Ka-Lughah Ajnaabiyyah fii Indunisiyya: Al-Rawaabith bayna Al-Ta'allum wa Al-Ta'liim

In Indonesia, currently Arabic teaching is predominantly teacher-centered and textbook-based. This study helps clarify how each reflective practice of Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) teachers can form and build their professional identity in teaching using sociocultural theory and reflective practice. The information gathered through narrative interviews shows that today’s AFL teachers believe their teaching is a direct or indirect result of prior learning experiences. They reflect on the positive aspects of teaching languages at the time, including the teachers who significantly impact their teaching. Additionally, in this reflective practice, the negative aspects should also be taken into account, expecting that teachers will learn from them and not make the same errors in the future.

Dealing with missing participants in the opening phases of a videoconference

Abstract The paper explores the social interaction that takes place during the initial phases of videoconferences. The focus is on the problem of absent participants, which is often considered a reason for delaying the official beginning of the meeting. One of the resources that the participants have is to reach the absent participant by cellphone. We observed a recurrent pattern of action whereby one of the participants disengages from the video meeting to reach the missing person by phone. This negotiation process moves through four steps: (1) the detection of the problem, (2) the offer to call the missing person by one participant, (3) the acceptance of this offer by the moderator, and (4) the temporary absence of the participant from the video meeting to make the phone call. Our data concern videoconferencing in the context of international teacher training in German as a foreign language (LEELU project, https://www.leelu.eu/english/).

ԽՈՍՈՒԹԱՅԻՆ ՎԵՐԼՈՒԾՈՒԹՅԱՆ ՀԻՄՆԱԽՆԴԻՐՆ ՕՏԱՐ ԼԵԶՎԻ ՈՒՍՈՒՑՄԱՆ ԳՈՐԾԸՆԹԱՑՈՒՄ / THE PROBLEM OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

This article examines the problem of using discourse analysis in the process of teaching foreign languages in secondary school. The article justifies the necessity of using discourse analysis in the process of teaching a foreign language, in the sense that by applying the procedures of discourse analysis, students can separate the language learning process from real speech situations, express themselves correctly and appropriately in the appropriate context, and real-life communication situations. From the point of view of discourse analysis, textbooks are considered as didactic tools of pedagogical discourse. It presents from the perspective of the communicative-cognitive approach, the strategies of the teacher's verbal behavior in pedagogical discourse: informative, regulatory, organizational, normative and cognitive, informative-arguing, manipulativeunifying, expressive-appellative, controlling-evaluative, etc. It analyzes from the point of view of the application of person-centered learning technologies, the strategies of the teacher's verbal behavior in the pedagogical speech. The normative-representational and project communicative strategies of educational and pedagogical discourse are subjected to component and functional analysis. It presents at the level of negotiation strategies conflict and cooperative strategies.

Մասնագիտական օտարալեզու տեքստերի վրա աշխատանքի արդի մոտեցումները ոչ լեզվաբանական մասնագիտությունների խմբերում / Modern approaches to working with Professional Texts in Non-Linguistic Disciplinary Groups

Taking a professional text as the main educational and methodological tool in teaching a foreign language for special purposes, the paper attempts to present modern approaches to the transmission, perception, analysis, memorization and other processes related to working with a text, which, in addition to the main goal of teaching a foreign language for special purposes, develop a number of skills and opportunities necessary for further professional activities. It is not only in terms of learning a foreign professional language, but also in those of the development of a number of important skills in students that will help them in the future to more easily cope with tasks for identifying the level of foreign language proficiency, assigned by both international and some local employers. As an alternative to usual methods, which mainly focus on memory and a number of mechanical actions for perception, memorization, reproduction of a foreign text, vocabulary enrichment, the proposed approaches activate a number of neurolinguistic features of students, in particular, centers of cognitive perception. Instead of the standard scheme of working with texts according to the “read-translate-retell” formula, strategic reading methods are proposed, including elements, such as activation, generalization, monitoring and clarification, visualization and organization, information search and selection, questioning and making assumptions, as well revealing the semantic core, analysis and synthesis of both written and oral texts.

An Analysis of Learners’ Needs of Arabic as a Foreign Language at Jordanian Universities

Conducting analysis in language needs has long been seen as essential. Given the importance of Arabic as the primary language of communication in most Jordanian universities, this study aims at exploring the difficulties encountered by non-native speakers of Arabic in learning the language. It also seeks to investigating the learners’ needs regarding Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) in Jordanian Universities. The participants in this study include 169 students from four countries (i.e., Malaysia, Thailand, China, and Indonesia). The students were selected from three different disciplines (i.e., Arabic Language, Islamic Finance, and Usuluddin). The study used a questionnaire adapted from previous studies on this topic. The questionnaire contains 49 items: 26 items ask about the difficulties of learning the Arabic language, and 23 items ask about the students’ needs in learning it. The results of this study revealed different difficulties in learning Arabic. The students also reported their needs for improving their proficiency in Arabic. The students mentioned some difficulties and needs related to productive skills such as writing and speaking. They also reported difficulties and needs related to receptive skills but with more focus on the academic context. Based on the results of this study, some recommendations for future research have been provided. Keywords: Needs Analysis, Arabic Language, Speakers of Other Languages, Yarmouk University.

A Qualitative Investigation into the Impact of Diglossia on the Self-learning of an Arabic Spoken Dialect by Arabic as a Foreign Language Learners

In a diglossic language such as Arabic, two distinct varieties are used for different purposes. Literary Arabic (LA), also referred to as Modern standard Arabic (MSA) or Fusha, is used primarily for reading, writing, and in formal and educational contexts across the Arab world. In addition to LA, there is a spoken dialect used for everyday communication, which varies from one Arabic country to another. Diglossia raises many challenges in the context of teaching Arabic as a foreign language. While some researchers and educators believe that spoken dialects should be taught in addition to LA, others still believe in the traditional LA-only approach, particularly in Arabic-speaking countries where learners are exposed to the dialect outside the classroom. The current study aims to explore the self-learning experience of the spoken dialect by Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) learners in an LA-only institute in Saudi Arabia. Particularly, the study investigates (a) the difficulties faced by the learners and the solutions adopted, (b) their ability to utilize the linguistic knowledge, and especially the morphological knowledge, they developed in LA to assist their acquisition of the spoken dialect, even if not instructed to do so, and (c) their attitudes towards teaching dialects in addition to LA in language institutes in Arabic-speaking countries. Our results reveal that AFL learners living in an Arabic-speaking country still struggle with the acquisition of everyday spoken dialect. In addition, they were unable to utilize the linguistic knowledge developed in LA to assist their acquisition of the dialect even when they were aware of how LA and the dialect could be linguistically related, especially at the morphological level. The results also show that AFL learners have different attitudes about the importance of teaching spoken dialects in language institutes. Participants’ opinions are shown to be dependent on several factors, including their motivation to learn the language, and the perceived difficulty of the task of acquiring LA and the dialect simultaneously. Future research recommendations and pedagogical implications are discussed accordingly.

THE FORMATION OF SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION KNOWLEDGE IN ENGLISH IN MASTER’S DEGREE PROGRAM STUDENTS OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS

The article justifies the importance of studying the academic discipline “Scientific Communication in aForeign Language” according to the Master’s degree educational program. The research aims atfinding the ways of the formation of scientific communication knowledge in English. To achieve thisgoal, such methods of pedagogical research as analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization oftheoretical scientific literature and advanced practical pedagogical experience were used. It has beennoted that the main didactic purpose of this discipline is to develop students’ knowledge of the scientificresearch methodology and the ability to present their own research results. The basic knowledge thatstudents gain in the process of studying the course has been indicated: awareness of the main featuresof scientific style and elements of academic texts; understanding of the rhetoric, stylistics and genreorganization of modern scientific discourse; skills formation of writing the scientific texts of differentgenres (summary, scientific article, abstract, review); awareness of the requirements for writing andpresenting conference abstracts. The conclusion about the effectiveness of the suggested methods ofstudying the scientific aspect in English by Master’s degree program students of natural sciences andmathematics has been made. It has been proposed to conduct further research in the direction of findingthe new effective ways to study the scientific aspect of a foreign language, in particular with the use ofthe latest information and advanced communication technologies.
 Keywords: scientific communication; Master’s degree program; English; academic discipline;scientific aspect; educational-scientific program; Master’s degree program students; academic text;research.

TO USE OR NOT TO USE: INSTAGRAM AS A FACILITATOROFDEVELOPING ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS

Developing writing skills may be challenging for the majorityofstudents while learning English. They easily get bored of typical writingstructures and often neglect such tasks. In order to engage students in the writingprocess and boost their interest, teachers always try to search for new modernteaching tools. One of the contemporary instruments to develop English as aforeign language (EFL) learners’ writing skills might be using social media. Thecurrent article attempts to conduct an overview of the studies devoted to theinvestigation of Instagram as a tool to practice writing as well as to facilitate thedevelopment of writing skills

Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language in Its Diglossic Situation: Is Formal Spoken Arabic an Ideal Solution?

Due to the complex diglossic situation in Arabic, the question of what variety of the language to teach has always occupied a central position in work on teaching Arabic as a foreign language (AFL). Basic Standard Arabic may have been the most supported answer to the above question, but the field is not short of proposals for teaching dialectal varieties. Moreover, in quest of a way to help learners achieve full “Functionally Native Proficiency” (Ryding 1991, 216), Formal Spoken Arabic (FSA) was proposed as a bridge between a standard variety and a dialectal one. The present study argues against such a proposal at beginner levels on the following grounds: (1) FSA is different from the standard and dialectal varieties of Arabic and (2) FSA users can always shift to their dialectal varieties and employ features lying beyond AFL learners’ scope of competence. The argument is supported by examining variation in the use of the Arabic relative clause induced by the tendency toward different relativisation strategies (i.e. the pronoun retention strategy or the gap strategy) in different Arabic varieties. Considering that the relative clause can be embedded into any construction to modify a head noun, variation in its use can affect learners’ ability to make sense of the language input. This variation is demonstrated by examples selected from texts written in Classical Arabic, Modern Classical Arabic, and Iraqi Arabic. The study has implications for AFL course writers.

Learners’ Writing Errors in Foreign Languages: Arabic and English as Examples

The practice of writing in a foreign language is a demanding skill that requires deep understanding of relevant error types. This research focuses on understanding, analysing and specifying the error types related to writing in a foreign language in two different language settings, considering differences in their cultural and linguistic systems. The study has adopted two rubrics for marking and determining different types of error made by learners while writing in a foreign language (English or Arabic). Each rubric, with its error categories, is suitable for the nature of each language. The results of this study can lead to an understanding of major errors in English and Arabic writing experienced by foreign-language learners (e.g., mechanical errors in English and grammatical errors in Arabic). In light of these findings, future learners in academic writing classes of English and Arabic as foreign languages can be provided with further instruction on and exposure to common errors, as well as how to minimize them. Further research is recommended to explore both the benefits of providing sufficient feedback on learners’ future writing and how typical errors are made. KEYWORDS Error, writing, English as a foreign language (EFL), Arabic as a foreign language (AFL), virtual exchange, telecollaboration