Arabizi Among Kuwaiti Youths: Reshaping the Standard Arabic Orthography

Akbar, Rahima S.

doi:10.5539/ijel.v9n1p301

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…English has progressively gained its unique status in Kuwait, due to a number of socio-economic and political reasons (Dashti, 2015;Akbar, 2018;Alazmi, 2017). College students, as well as professors -English major, are placed under the pressure of conducting all their communications (whether written or spoken) in English only, in and off classroom settings.…”

Section: L1 or L2? A Dichotomy In English Teaching And Learning In Kuwaitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Translanguaging as an ESL Learning strategy: A case study in Kuwait

Akbar

Taqi

2020

IJHE

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In the domain of teaching bilingual students, the issue of using the first language in a second-language based class has been widely controversial. While some studies have questioned the method of moving between the two languages—Translanguaging, others found it highly beneficial. Here we aimed to investigate the effect of Translanguaging on the learner’s performance and language learning. 34 consenting female students of English participated in oral and written exercises pre-and-post the use of Translanguaging. A short questionnaire was answered afterwards to elicit the participants’ perception on the use of Translanguaging as part of their classwork. Even though students did not believe that their ability to alternate between the two languages has placed them in a significantly enhanced comfort zone, their higher grades post-Translanguaging indicate Translanguaging enhanced their understanding and enabled them to achieve higher levels of knowledge processing. Nevertheless, the participants’ language was not significantly affected by the process. Overall, we can conclude that Translanguaging in a bilingual classroom is effective in fully understanding the topic and the information provided, yet it does not help improve language proficiency.

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Section: L1 or L2? A Dichotomy In English Teaching And Learning In Kuwaitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Translanguaging as an ESL Learning strategy: A case study in Kuwait

Akbar

Taqi

2020

IJHE

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“…To exemplify, Alsulami's (2019) participants were between 18 and 35 years old. In contrast, Akbar (2019) differentiates between two generations of Arabizi users in her findings. For example, she noted that the younger generation (18-25 years old) used Arabizi by mixing Roman letters with numbers and apostrophes.…”

Section: Transliterating Arabizi To Arabic Orthographymentioning

confidence: 70%

“…It is well-known that Arabic dialects differ significantly from SA in terms of grammar, syntax, morphology, and pronunciation. The linguistic context in Arab countries is a typical case of diglossia where SA is used as a formal, high variety in official contexts, and the nonstandard, dialectic varieties are used in everyday speech (Akbar, 2019). Arabizi is thought to be causing an emerging case of triglossia, where it could become another nonstandard variety used with the regional dialect, and replace SA in the Arab print; leading to a language shift in the future (Akbar et al, 2020).…”

Section: Literature Review the Effect Of Arabizi On Arabicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As described on their website (https://www.yamli.com/), Yamli provides a Smart Arabic Keyboard that offers a "realtime transliteration engine which converts words typed with Latin characters to their closest Arabic equivalent." The literature contains many studies looking at the linguistics and sociolinguistic aspects of using Arabizi (e.g., Akbar, 2019;Al-Shaer, 2016;Alsulami, 2019). However, many examine Arabizi users or non-users by often grouping those of different ages and treating them as one cohort, without considering the diversity and dissimilarity of their experiences with Arabizi and technology as a whole.…”

Section: Transliterating Arabizi To Arabic Orthographymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Arabizi across Three Different Generations of Arab Users Living Abroad: A Case Study

Haghegh¹

2021

AWEJ‑tls

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The study explores the sociolinguistic phenomenon, Arabizi, from a new perspective by investigating the case of three Arabizi users coming from different generations: Azer (42 years old), Nada (29 years old), and Mira (21 years old). The main research question of the study is how generational differences between Arabizi users shape their experiences with Arabizi in terms of 1) how they learned it, 2) how they currently use it, 3) how they perceive its effect on the Arabic language, 4) their attitude towards its users, 5) and their expectations for its future use. Semi-structured interviews were employed to gain a deeper insight into participants’ experiences with Arabizi, taking into consideration their linguistic, educational, work, and social backgrounds. The significance of this case study lies in how Arabizi users’ surroundings and life experiences influence their linguistic choices and perceptions. Findings provide insight into how Arabizi is considered advantageous compared to using English language. It is also perceived to be a phase for youngsters that will subside in the future as technology develops. The study concludes with recommendations for future research on how Arabizi transforms as its users grow older.

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“…In Kuwait, the status of English has progressively moved from being a foreign language into the language of advancement and high professional opportunity [8,9]. Conversing in English at a level at which the users can understand and be understood has become crucially important in Kuwait, regardless of the field in which the population studies or works.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phonological Awareness of English Phonemes by Kuwaiti Arabic Speakers with Evidence of Phonemic Hypercorrection

Akbar¹,

Taqi²,

Al-Gharabally³

2020

IJECS

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Research in the area of L2 phonological awareness continues to grow rapidly considering the importance of achieving proficient spoken English and ensuring being understood during communication, but most importantly on guaranteeing learners (worldwide) better professional opportunities. In Kuwait, conversing in English at a level at which the users can understand and be understood has become crucially important, regardless of the field in which the population studies or works. Within such intriguing context of phonological awareness in second language acquisition, the current study investigated the association of English phonemes production and perception by speakers of Kuwaiti Arabic and the main triggers of incorrect production. The present study looked specifically into the phonological errors made by Kuwaiti speakers of English when L1 has a parallel phoneme of only one of the two contrasting L2 phonemes in its L1 phoneme and/or orthography systems. The study was conducted on 244 Kuwaiti male and female participants between the ages of 18 and 30. The sample answered a 44 words questionnaire consisting of three English phonemes, namely, /p/, /v/ and /t∫/ and their counterparts /b/, /f/ and /∫/. The participants were asked to choose the correct sound they hear in word-initial and word-final positions. Findings of the study suggest that many Kuwaiti learners of English found it difficult to identify the English phonemes as a result of a deeper level of complications triggered by the occurrence of contrasting phonemes in both L1 and L2, hypercorrection, and interference of orthography. It is, hence, believed that perception is not the sole reason that causes Arabic learners of English to produce English sounds incorrectly.

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Arabizi Among Kuwaiti Youths: Reshaping the Standard Arabic Orthography

Cited by 5 publications

References 10 publications

Translanguaging as an ESL Learning strategy: A case study in Kuwait

Translanguaging as an ESL Learning strategy: A case study in Kuwait

Arabizi across Three Different Generations of Arab Users Living Abroad: A Case Study

Phonological Awareness of English Phonemes by Kuwaiti Arabic Speakers with Evidence of Phonemic Hypercorrection

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