spelling and Arab learners

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.2, 2014   
                                                                                                                                                            Pp.167 -186
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     



English Varieties and Arab Learners in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries: Attitude and Perception

Wafa Shahada Zoghbor
Zayed University
United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi



Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes of post-secondary Arab learners towards native and non-native varieties of English. A stimulus tap was incorporated within semi-structured interviews where respondents listened to 6 speakers (an Indian, Arab, Thai, British, American, and Canadian) and then answered 5-Point Likert scale questions. The findings revealed that the interviewees encountered difficulties identifying the speakers’ first languages. Whilst the British and Canadian speakers were perceived more positively than the other speech samples and were easier to understand than the Thai speaker, they were less understandable to the interviewees than the Arab and Indian speakers. The American speaker was perceived less positively than the other speech samples and was also the least understandable. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings and specific recommendations that could facilitate improving Arab learners’ tolerance of their own (as well as other non-native) varieties of English. The data in this paper forms part of a broader study investigating the attitude of Arab learners towards the shifting ownership of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF).
Keywords: Arab learners; English as a lingua franca (ELF); native speaker (NS) / non-native speakers (NNS) of English; accent; attitude.

Writing is a pivotal system that transfers spoken utterances from being heard to being seen and read. Literacy is appraised not only by reading and writing accurately, but also spelling words correctly. Pedagogically speaking, second language learners (L2) may struggle in their English writing more than first language speakers (L1) due to different reasons. Even among L2 learners, it is believed that Arab learners struggle with English spelling more than any other non-native speakers. This paper, therefore, is an attempt to review recent research and literature on the spelling errors made by Arab learners. In addition, a small experimental study of intermediate high school Saudi students aged 17-18 years old (n = 26) is implemented in a context that has not been explored yet. All participating students were tested before taking part in the study. The results of this study are consistent with previous research, which found that spelling errors made by Arab learners are associated with the impact of their L1. The most common spelling errors are consonant doubling, silent letters, final [e] and vowels in general. It is, thus, indispensable for Arab instructors and stakeholders to scrutinize this dilemma explicitly.
Keywords: Writing system, Spelling errors, First language, Second language, Arab learners

Teaching Scientific Vocabulary to EFL Learners Using English: Content and Language Integrated Learning


Rehab Helmi Albakri
The British University, Dubai, UAE


Abstract
This study investigates a method for teaching vocabulary of Biology using English to Arab learners who study English as a foreign language at a private school in Sharjah. The rationale for doing this study is that Arab students who learn all subjects in Arabic find difficulties when they learn the same subjects in English, consequently, a failure in understanding English scientific texts will happen to students. The methodology of teaching vocabulary of Biology in English is expected to enhance students' skills such as reading, writing and speaking to be able to understand scientific texts especially those related to Biology. Also, the study is adapted to suit the needs and motivations of the Arab learners whom I teach and may be suitable in schools that provide academic subjects in Arabic while English is studied as a foreign language. To achieve the purpose of the study a literature review of the main theories related to content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is conducted. Then, data samples are collected from 30 female students of grade 12 who are nearly advanced learners of English and have studied Biology for about three years but in Arabic. The qualitative instruments used to collect data include observations by school supervisors, students' works, and interviews with some of the students who are involved in the study. The results of data analysis prove the positive outcomes of the study which are represented by promoting students to understand English scientific texts, answering questions of comprehension, pronouncing words of the lesson correctly and reading aloud parts of the texts easily. 
Key words: CLIL, vocabulary of Biology, English skills, Arab learners, scientific texts

If you have ever wondered at the complexity of English spelling and felt less than adequate when faced with the "awesome mess" of teaching it to nonnative English students many of whom also have to deal with the challenge of a new script and sound code, a new language direction or very possibly, dyslexia, or simply a short term memory problem then this book it just what the doctor ordered.

This article presents a novel architecture using a hybrid model for developing a Sindhi spellchecker system which has yet not been developed prior to this work. The compound textual forms and glyphs of Sindhi language presents a substantial challenge for developing a Sindhi spellchecker system and generating a similar suggestion list for misspelled words. In order to implement such a system, phonetic-based Sindhi language rules and patterns must be taken into account for increasing the accuracy and efficiency. In this research work, a simple and efficient combinational hybrid system is proposed, using three different algorithms, the Edit Distance algorithm to find the measure of similarity between two Sindhi strings. The phonetic-based SoundEx and ShapeEx algorithms are developed for pattern or glyph matching, generating accurate and an efficient suggestion list for incorrect or misspelled Sindhi words. The proposed system is established with a blend between Phonetic-based SoundEx algorithm and ShapeEx algorithm for pattern or glyph matching, generating accurate and efficient suggestion list for incorrect or misspelled Sindhi words. In this article, a table of phonetically similar-sounding Sindhi characters is presented which are grouped together along with another table containing similar glyph or shape-based character groups. The system has been successfully integrated into a pre-developed Sindhi word processer application. The Sindhi word segmentation methodology and algorithms required for the spellchecker has already been published and so are not discussed in detail in this article.

Spelling is a complex cognitive activity in which several mental processes are involved. Learning to spell English as a second language involves the correct association of spoken sounds (phonemes) and written symbols (graphemes). The correct association of phonemes and graphemes involves phonological, orthographic, semantic, and morphological skills on the part of the EFL student. Identifying the strategies that students employ while spelling English words will help instructors in diagnosing students' spelling weaknesses, and in planning spelling instruction. A strategy refers to the conscious or unconscious processes which students employ in learning and using a second language. It is the way in which a student attempts to figure out the meanings and uses of words, grammatical or spelling rules. A learning strategy may be applied to simple tasks such as learning a list of new words, or more complex involving language comprehension and production (Richards, Platt & Platt, 1992). In this study, a spelling strategy will refer to the mental processes that EFL students use to represent spoken sounds by written symbols. Spelling strategies were classified by researchers in different ways. For example, Beers, Beers and Grant (1977) classified the strategies that children in grades 1 to 4 use in spelling English into: a letter-name strategy, the addition of an incorrect vowel after a correct vowel, using their own concept of silent vowels after long vowels, the incorrect substitution of a short vowel for another short vowel. Spelling strategies that kindergarten, first and second grade children use in spelling L1 were classified by Gentry (1978) into a correct strategy, a transitional strategy, a phonetic strategy, a prephonetic strategy and a deviant strategy. Lennox and Spiegel (1996) identified two spelling strategies: phonological and visual strategies. They defined a phonological strategy as the proc ess in which spelling is based on the relationship between letters and sounds in English. In a visual strategy, the students use a process of direct lexical access. They replicate the f orm of a word using orthographic memory with no intermediate phonological skills. A review of the spelling literature has revealed that the strategies that students use in L1 spelling were investigated by several studies. Silva & Yarborough (1990) classified spelling errors. Nolen and McCartin (1985) examined the spelling strategies of first through fifth grade students on the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT). Stuart (1990) investigated processing strategies in a phoneme deletion task. Stuart explored the factors that govern the use of phonological and orthographic strategies in a difficult consonant deletion task by 23 nine-year-old children.

This study aimed at investigating the impact of using spelling strategies on writing performance among intermediate EFL learners in Iran. To this end, 40 intermediate female students aged between 15 to 25 were selected in Khorram Abad, Iran. They were homogenized based on their performance on Oxford Quick Placement Test, were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received writing instruction based on a number of spelling strategies during 12 sessions lasting 60 minutes. In contrast, the control group was instructed based tradition approach where no spelling strategy was explicitly taught. Furthermore, two parallel writing tests, designed by a panel of well-experienced EFL teachers, were administered as pre-test and post-test to measure the participants' writing ability before and after the instructions. Results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of gain scores on the writing post-test. In addition, it was found that " applying knowledge of word meanings, derivations, prefixes, and suffixes " was the most frequently used and " asking a superior speller for help " was the least frequent strategy used by the experimental group. Finally, pedagogical implications for the EFL teachers and learners were discussed in light of the findings.

Within a sociocultural and interactionist theoretical framework, this study set out to determine the effectiveness of collaborative dialogues and form-focused, corrective feedback in online communication in improving 27 EFL female learners' spelling. According to a questionnaire results, those students preferred using the WhatsApp to engage in collaborative interaction outside the classroom. The present study adopted the quasi-experimental design in terms of using five experimental groups and one control group. For the direct impact of the improvement in spelling on writing, there was a need to find out the long-term effect of the programme on the writing of the study sample, which was assessed in their final achievement course test. It was concluded that collaborative dialogues and form-focused, corrective feedback in online communication was effective in improving EFL learners' spelling.