Arabic-speaking Communities Research Articles

Translation and cultural adaptation of an Arabic version of the patient scar assessment scale for thyroidectomy patients.

Objectives:To translate and validate an Arabic version of the patient scar assessment scale (PSAS). The cosmetic appearance of a thyroidectomy scar can critically influence a patient’s self-esteem. Moreover, scar evaluation tools are necessary for an evidence-based approach to scar management.Methods:This quantitative, observational, cross-sectional study was conducted by administering an Arabic-translated version of the PSAS. The translation process included a forward translation into Arabic by 3 fluently bilingual otolaryngologists, a back-translation into English, and a comparison with the original items. The questionnaires were distributed to patients who underwent thyroidectomies. We included patients who underwent surgery at least 2 months previously.Results:A total of 50 patients were included in this research. The internal consistency was 0.89, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.88-0.90. The score distributions showed high correlations for all items. The Arabic-translated PSAS showed good test-retest reliability, and the Pearson correlation coefficient between the test and retest administrations was 0.84 (p<0.001). With a possible range of 6-60 points, the standard error of the mean was 5.14, and the minimal detectable change was 14.2.Conclusion:This Arabic version of the PSAS was reliable for use in Arabic-speaking communities. It will allow for comparisons between the results of investigations conducted in different countries, which aids in the exchange of information within the international scientific community.

The Impact of Culture and Gender on the Production of Online Speech Acts among Jordanian Facebook Users

This study of speech acts offers deep insights into the social structure and gender differences of any speech community. Most relevant research on online speech acts has shed much light on Western speech communities, neglecting the speech act behavior of Arabic speaking communities. This study aimed to examine the influence of gender differences and the Jordanian cultural norms on the use of speech acts in Facebook Status Updates (FSUs). A total of 1718 FSUs were collected over a period of 2 months. Then, they were categorized according to Searle’s speech acts taxonomy. Results showed that women made an average of 6 updates to their Facebook status, while men averaged four. In addition, the results revealed that females and males differ in their linguistic repertoires. Male participants were inclined to use more assertive speech acts, whereas females were more likely to use expressive speech acts. Islam and tribalism are factors that were found to play an important role in defining the cultural norms of the Jordanian speech community. .

Red Crescents: Race, Genetics, and Sickle Cell Disease in the Middle East

Historical accounts of sickle cell disease tend to emphasize either its theoretical role in catalyzing the field of medical genetics or its clinical and social significance in representing the health-care disparities experienced by African Americans. This essay bridges these narratives by focusing on the discovery of sickle cells in marginalized Arabic-speaking communities of Yemen and Turkey in the 1950s. As in North America, sickle cell research in the Middle East unfolded along the social fractures of race. The essay analyzes how British, Turkish, and Arab geneticists attempted to create evolutionary hypotheses that reconciled historical and sociological boundaries between white and African, Arab and Turk. As the parameters of Turkish and Arab nationalism shifted in the Cold War–era Middle East, so did the favored explanatory narratives for the presence of sickle cells in different communities, which assigned different degrees of importance to African ancestry, socially enforced endogamy, and evolutionary adaptations to malaria.

Language Maintenance and Heritage Language Education: The Case of a Weekend Arabic School in New Zealand

This study examines the perceived value of an Arabic weekend school in the process of heritage language maintenance and development among Arab immigrant children in New Zealand. Through an analysis of data gathered through semi-structured interviews with parents, children and teachers, as well as observation at this school, the study aims to gain insights into the participants’ perceptions of the school and its function within the Arabic-speaking community. The overall picture that emerged from the data regarding the Arabic community language school was that it represented ‘a key line of defense’ for Arabic heritage language development and maintenance that needed to be developed into a proper school which provided frequent and quality Arabic learning and teaching. Major themes articulated by the participants regarding the school and its perceived value will be discussed.

Evaluation of the acceptability and clinical utility of an Arabic-language mindfulness CD in an Australian community setting.

The cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity of Australia's population presents challenges for mental health service delivery. Arabic-speaking communities in Australia underutilise mental health services despite high levels of trauma and psychological distress. Clinicians who work with this population lack linguistically and culturally appropriate clinical resources. The aim of this study was to explore the acceptability and clinical utility of a Mindfulness Skills CD translated into formal Arabic. The 70 participants were Arabic-speaking adults, mostly Lebanese-born Muslim women, who enrolled in a 5-week mindfulness program using the CD and agreed to follow-up at 12 weeks. Both recruitment and data collection were undertaken by a female project officer who is a widely respected member of the Arabic community in south-east Sydney. Compliance with the program protocol was high and all but 4 participants continued to use the CD beyond the 5 weeks. Overall, participants reported that mindfulness techniques fitted well with their way of life and were compatible with their cultural and religious practices. Most found mindfulness complementary to their regular reflective prayer. Using the Mindfulness Skills CD was associated with statistically significant reductions in psychological distress as measured by the Kessler Scale (K10) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS21) postprogram (K10; DASS21 Depression and Stress subscales) and at follow-up (all measures). The evaluation showed that the Arabic Mindfulness Skills CD is an effective and culturally appropriate mental health resource for this population group. This low-cost, easily distributed resource is suitable for use in individual self-management and as an adjunct to primary and specialist mental health care.

Cross-sectional study protocol for the Arabic Healthy Weight Project promoting active living and healthy eating among Arabic-speaking communities in South Western Sydney

IntroductionThe South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD) is home to nearly 75 000 Arabic-speaking people. Of these, nearly three quarters are overweight or obese and suffer from a range...

A Polemical Tale and its Function in the Jewish Communities of the Mediterranean and the Near East

Abstract The parodical narrative Toledot Yeshu (TY) has been the object of burgeoning interest in the past decade. It has recently become evident that this work was quite popular in Judeo-Arabic, and circulated continuously in Arabic-speaking Jewish communities from at least the eleventh century until nearly the present day. The following is a first foray into the Judeo-Arabic textual tradition of this narrative. From the sixteenth century and beyond, TY circulated in Arabic-speaking communities in collections of folk narrative. Close examination of the textual tradition of TY in Judeo-Arabic as preserved in four parallel manuscript fragments from the twelfth—fifteenth centuries provides further, more subtle evidence linking TY to this genre, and suggests that TY served primarily as literary entertainment in the Near East. I conclude with consideration of the codicological context of TY manuscripts preserved in Europe, and propose that this Near Eastern function contrasts to TY’s primarily polemical function in Europe.

A Sociolinguistic Study of Religious-Based Proverbs in Al-Bahah Province

The initial impetus for studying the dialectical scene as spoken by Ghamed and Zahran in Al-Bahah is to retain a valuable aspect of Al-Bahah province culture in “Apparent Time”. The study is a contribution to the accumulating literature in sociolinguistics which addresses the issue of language use as a social and cultural representative of a particular speech community. The study reconstructs a synchronic analysis of Al-Bahah proverbs that perform certain speech act/s in different speech situations involving speakers of Al-Bahah dialect and relates these proverbial utterances to either the Holy Qur'an or the Prophetic Hadith. The study employs John Searle's (1995) theory of the in/direct speech act/illocutionary act applied to the linguistic analysis of 13 proverbs occurring in conversational situations among speakers who form a speech community – sharing the same language and the same cultural background. Investigating how far the socio-linguistic values of Al-Bahah speech community is embodied in their conversations, the study finds out that their use of these proverbs reveals pragmatic fitness of the performative proverbs to the situational context. Moreover, the findings indicate that the speakers of the dialect are not detached from their authentic religious beliefs and values. Methodologically, the study offers a socio –cultural description of proverbs as employed by the urban Arabic speaking community of southern West province of Al-Bahah, Saudi Arabia. It assigns speech acts to these conversational proverbs. Finally, it relates the proverb proposition either to the Holy Qur'an or the Prophetic Hadith.

Shaping interventions to address waterpipe smoking in Arabic-speaking communities in Sydney, Australia: a qualitative study

BackgroundWaterpipe smoking is a traditional method of tobacco smoking that is being increasingly practiced worldwide. However, the research evidence describing the practice and prevalence of waterpipe smoking in Australia is limited. Arabic-speaking communities residing in an area of metropolitan Sydney identified increasing rates of waterpipe smoking as a community health concern during a tobacco intervention project. A qualitative research project was conducted to explore community perceptions about waterpipe smoking and the health promotion interventions that would be acceptable to Arabic speaking communities.MethodsParticipants from Arabic-speaking community groups and networks were recruited by trained bilingual community research assistants (BCRAs). Ten focus groups were conducted, eight by the BCRAs and two by the research team, and included a total of 88 participants. Notes were taken during the focus groups by the BCRAs and provided to the research team. The data was coded and managed using NVivo 11, and examined for themes and subthemes.ResultsEleven themes were identified from the data relating to the perceptions of waterpipe smoking (practices, cultural identity, acceptability, social connectedness, knowledge and perceptions of harm, trend and fashion, availability and access) and possible health promotion interventions (health information and social marketing, health education, policy and legislation, intervention target groups and messages). Waterpipe smoking was reported to be widely practiced and was related to a number of factors including feelings of cultural identity and belonging. The study highlighted the misconceptions of harm that exist in communities about the health effects of waterpipe smoking, as well as the significant role of the family in passing on the practice of waterpipe smoking. These factors should be considered in the development of health promotion interventions.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that until waterpipe smoking is perceived as a problem, community readiness for accepting health promotion interventions will be limited. Interventions should focus on debunking the myths that contribute toward a reduced perception of harm. A culturally sensitive approach, that considers the cultural connection to waterpipe smoking, should be taken toward the development and implementation of interventions.

A Normalized Least Mean Square and Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) Algorithm for an Intelligent Quran Tutoring System

Al-Quran is the most recited holy book in the Arabic language. Over 1.3-billion Muslim all over the world have an obligation to recite and learn Al-Quran. Learners from non-Arabic as well as from Arabic speaking communities face difficulties with Al-Quran recitation in the absence of a teacher (ustad) around. Advancement in speech recognition technology creates possible solutions to develop a system that has a capability to auricularly discern and validate the recitation. This paper investigates the speech recognition accuracy of template-based acoustic models and propose enhancement methods to improve the accuracy. A new scheme consists of enhancement of Normalized Least Mean Square (NLMS) and Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithms have been proposed. The performance of the speech recognition accuracy was further improved by incorporating an adaptive optimal filtering with modified humming window for MFCC (Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients) using matching technique dynamic programming (DP), DTW (Dynamic Time Wrapping). The proposed scheme increases 5.5% of relative improvement in recognition accuracy achieved over conventional speech recognition process.

Exploiting the Prophet's Authority: How Islamic State Propaganda Uses Hadith Quotation to Assert Legitimacy

ABSTRACTThrough its prolific propaganda, the self-declared Islamic State (IS) seeks to attract new recruits, motivate existing members, and assert the group's legitimacy. This study addresses the question of how IS attempts to legitimize itself through its official rhetoric by exploring its invocation of religious authority via reference to sacred Islamic texts. The study focuses on a specific category of religious scripture: the collected words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, known as the hadith. The body of hadith has historically served as a bridge of authority from past to present, linking later individuals and groups to the legacy of the Prophet. Related studies have demonstrated that within the Arabic-speaking community in general, citing hadith and Qur'an is an everyday rhetorical strategy for argumentation across all topics, secular and sacred. This article takes an in-depth look at the hadith quotations included in a sample of official IS propaganda to compare the relative frequency of specific themes and to determine which hadith compilations IS publicists prefer. The study compares the quotation of hadith across media platforms (videos, newsletters, and magazines), genres (print and video), and languages (Arabic and English). The findings show that IS messaging tends to quote hadith from canonical Sunni collections. The study highlights important differences between English and Arabic language propaganda, noting in particular that English-language propaganda focuses more on apocalyptic prophecies than Arabic-language materials. Case studies illustrate how IS selectively draws on the vast body of hadith literature as part of the group's strategic framing.

A Lexical Distance Study of Arabic Dialects

Diglossia is a very common phenomenon in Arabic-speaking communities, where the spoken language is different from both Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The spoken language is characterised as a number of dialects used in everyday communication as well as informal writing. In this paper, we highlight the lexical relation between the MSA and Dialectal Arabic (DA) in more than one Arabic region. We conduct a computational cross dialectal lexical distance study to measure the similarities and differences between dialects and the MSA. We exploit several methods from Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Information Retrieval (IR) like Vector Space Model (VSM), Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and Hellinger Distance (HD), and apply them on different Arabic dialectal corpora. We measure the overlap among all the dialects and compute the frequencies of the most frequent words in every dialect. The results are informative and indicate that Levantine dialects are very similar to each other and furthermore, that Palestinian appears to be the closest to MSA.

Blessing or Burden? The Impact of Refugees on Businesses and the Informal Economy

We study the impact and sudden arrival of more than 3 million Syrian refugees on Turkish businesses. Our empirical design uses the exogenous variation in refugee outflows from Syria and the geographic concentration of Arabic-speaking communities in Turkey prior to the onset of the Syrian conflict. The origin of these communities dates back to the rupture of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, a unique historic episode. Using yearly firm census data from 2006 to 2015, we find that refugee inflows induced a positive impact on the intensive and extensive margins of firm production. The effects are stronger for smaller firms and for firms that operate in the construction and hospitality sectors, they are also largely concentrated in the informal economy.

CERAD Neuropsychological Battery-Arabic Version: Regression-Based and Stratified Normative Data and Effects of Demographic Variables on Cognitive Performance in Older Omanis.

Normative data on cognitive performance for the Omani population are scarce. In this study, we tested a sample of older (≥50 years) community-dwelling Omanis on the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease neuropsychological battery-Arabic version (CERAD-ArNB). We analyzed the participants' cognitive performance and how it was affected by their sex, age, and level of education. We enrolled 150 older Arabic-speaking Omanis from March 2014 to June 2015. Most of the participants were visitors to patients admitted to a tertiary referral center in the Sultanate of Oman. All participants underwent screening to ensure normal cognitive function before taking the CERAD-ArNB. We used multiple regression analysis and stratification according to demographic variables to illustrate the normative data. A total of 125 participants, 65 men (52%) and 60 women (48%), met the inclusion criteria and completed the testing. Multiple regression and univariate analyses showed that although sex and age significantly affected cognitive performance on some CERAD-ArNB subtests, education level had by far the greatest effect. Lower education level was associated with poorer CERAD-ArNB performance in a sample of cognitively normal Omanis aged 50 years and older. The normative data obtained from this study will help clinicians correctly interpret cognitive performance in the Omani elderly population, and probably in other, culturally similar Arabic-speaking communities.

Asthma management experiences of Australians who are native Arabic speakers

ABSTRACTObjective: The aim of this study was to explore the asthma management experiences of people with asthma within the Arabic-speaking community in Australia. Methods: Semi-structured interviews guided by a schedule of questions were conducted with 25 Arabic-speaking women with asthma\\carer of a child with asthma, recruited from medical practices and community centers in Melbourne, Australia. Results: Twenty-five Arabic-speaking participants with asthma or caring for those with asthma were interviewed. Interviews lasted on average 25 minutes. Most participants or those they were caring for did not have well-controlled asthma. Thematic analyses of the interview transcripts highlighted five key emergent themes: stigma, health literacy, non-adherence, expectations, and coping styles. Findings indicated that many participants were not conversant about local information avenues or healthcare or facilities such as the Asthma Foundation or availability of Arabic translators during general practitioner (GP) consults. Many recent migrants were generally non-adherent with treatment; preferring to follow traditional folk medicine rather than consulting a GP or pharmacist. Some unrealistic expectations from doctors/treatment goals were expressed by a few participants. Some parents of children with asthma reported disappointment with the fact that their children did not grow out of asthma. Conclusion: Low health literacy and in particular knowledge about asthma, cultural beliefs, language, and migration-related issues may all be affecting the level of asthma control in the Arabic-speaking population in Australia. Measures to enhance asthma and health system literacy designed to be culturally concordant with the beliefs, expectations, and experiences of such populations may be key to improving asthma management.

Splitting of Arabic communal dialects at childhood: The case of consonant acquisition in Kfar Kanna Israel

Phonetic studies of the acquisition of Arabic dialects are few, both in Israel and in Arab countries where native speakers use Arabic dialects as their daily communication means. The need to know when and how dialects split in the numerous Arabic-speaking communities is important both for the linguistic aspect and for some practical clinical goals. The current study focuses on the acquisition of consonants in Kfar Kanna (near Nazareth), a village in the north of Israel, which has a mixed population of Christian and Moslem inhabitants. Participants were altogether 127 girls and boys, in six age groups (3:00 to 7:00 years old) of those faith communities. The children had normal development and no hearing or speech problems. Our findings show that the pronunciation of the colloquial Arabic consonantal inventory develops with age, as expected. It also assimilates gradually to the adult faith groups' phonetic systems. This is evident, especially in a few distinctive consonants, e.g., /q, D³/. Due to schooling, some effects of the Modern Standard Arabic phonetic system are also evident in the older children's data. This is a first study of communal Arabic dialects development in Israel, as far as we know.

Quoting the Prophet online: Communicative functions of hadith quotations in webbased Arabic discourse

Abstract Quoting from sacred texts is a common practice in even secular discussions in Arabic-speaking communities. The current study looks at how a set of quotations are used to support a writer’s position in discussions on public media forums. In particular, the article explores the use of quotations from the hadith, the collected reports of the Prophet Muhammad’s words and actions, in online message boards associated with two Arabic-language news websites. We examine how hadith quotations provide both illocutionary meaning (such as advising or persuading) and interpersonal meaning (identifying the participants as sharing knowledge of these sacred texts, and potentially also identifying the speaker as being observant or highly cultured). We show that for a range of topics, participants use hadith quotations to invoke authority, and that part of the contribution to the rhetorical force of the argument may involve a portion of the text that is not quoted.

Time to question diabetes self-management support for Arabic-speaking migrants: exploring a new model of care.

The objective of this study was to explore a new model for diabetes self-management support in Arabic-speaking migrants. Two qualitative methods were used: face-to-face semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and coded thematically. Arabic-speaking migrants with Type 2 diabetes were recruited from several primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare settings in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. These settings were purposefully selected to obtain a diverse group of participants. Data collection continued until saturation was reached. This is the first study that involved members of Arabic-speaking communities in Australia in a formal process of consumer and public involvement to inform research design and recruitment in order to provide evidence for a new model of diabetes self-management for Arabic-speaking migrants. No self-management support was offered to Arabic-speaking migrants beyond the initial diagnosis period. Significant knowledge gaps and skills deficits in all self-management domains were evident. The provision of tailored self-management support was considered crucial. When asked about preferred structure and delivery modalities, a strong preference was reported for face-to-face storytelling interactions over telephone- or internet-based interventions. Gender-specific group education and self-management support sessions delivered by Arabic-speaking diabetes health professionals, lay peers or social workers trained in diabetes self-management were highly regarded. A patient and public involvement approach allows genuine engagement with Arabic-speaking migrants with diabetes. There is urgent need for a new model for self-management support among Arabic-speaking migrants. Findings yielded new recommendations for diabetes health professionals working with these migrant communities to support behaviour change.

Attitudes and beliefs about deceased organ donation in the Arabic-speaking community in Australia: a focus group study

ObjectivesTo describe the beliefs and attitudes to organ donation in the Arabic-speaking community.DesignArabic-speaking participants were purposively recruited to participate in 6 focus groups. Transcripts were analysed thematically.Participants53 participants, aged 19–77...

Language, conflict, and migration: Situating Arabic bilingual community education in the United States

AbstractFocusing on the educational efforts of a diverse ethnolinguistic community, this article considers the rationales, mechanisms, and channels adopted by Arabic-speaking communities in the US to teach and learn the Arabic language. The article draws on research conducted with a number of Arabic speaking populations in New York to situate Arabic language education in the US within the transnational context of conflict and migration. By employing a transnational lens, it provides insights into both the growing interest in the Arabic language, and conversely, the challenges posed to Arabic bilingual community efforts. The findings illustrate the embeddedness of Arabic language efforts in the US within a larger sociopolitical and sociohistorical context of conflict. This context, I argue, has shaped the rationales and means adopted by US Arabic-speaking communities to teach the Arabic language to their American children.