SACM - Australia
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9648
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Item Restricted Understanding Family Language Policies in Saudi Sojourning Families: insights from Mothers in Melbourne.(Monash University, 2024) Alsubaie, Samah; Fang, NinaThis study investigates how ten Saudi sojourning mothers in Melbourne manage Family Language Policy (FLP) decisions regarding their children's language development. Unlike immigrants, who aim for long-term integration, sojourners live abroad temporarily, planning to return to their home country. Much research has been conducted on immigrants; however, few studies have focused on sojourners, particularly Saudi sojourning mothers. Therefore, they are the focus of this study. Using a qualitative approach, including semi-structured interviews, the study finds that all mothers prioritize maintaining Arabic for religious, cultural, and educational reasons. The research reveals the significant influence of external societal pressures and internal family dynamics on FLP choices, leading to a gap between the mothers' declared language ideologies and their actual practices. Despite these challenges, the mothers show a strong commitment to preserving their children's first language (L1) through consistent strategies. A key finding is the positive impact of fathers' active involvement in language education, which not only enhances language acquisition but also strengthens family unity and authority. The study highlights the complexities of FLP in transnational families and offers valuable insights into how parental roles and external factors shape language policies.14 0Item Restricted Children’s Development of the Arabic Emphatic Consonants; An Acoustic Investigation(Macquarie University, 2024-02) Alkhudidi, Anwar; Benders, Titia; Demuth, Katherine; Holt, Rebecca; Szalay, TuendeThis thesis examines the developmental trajectory in the production of plain-emphatic consonant contrasts among Saudi-Hijazi-Arabic-speaking children aged 3 to 6 years. The production of the articulatory complex emphatic consonants involves a primary coronal constriction and a secondary pharyngeal/uvular constriction. Acoustically, emphatics exert a strong anticipatory and carryover coarticulatory influence that can extend to all segments within the same word, a phenomenon termed ‘emphasis spread’(e.g., J. Al-Tamimi, 2017; Card, 1983; Jongman et al., 2011; Khattab et al., 2006; Zawaydeh & de Jong, 2011). Prior research, primarily based on impressionistic data, suggests emphatic segments are typically late acquired, after the age of 4 years (e.g., Alqattan, 2015; Amayreh, 2003; Amayreh & Dyson, 1998). However, auditory judgments may not fully capture the subtle developmental changes or gradations in the production of these consonants that are detectable through acoustic analysis (Macken & Barton, 1980; Mashaqba et al., 2022). Consequently, this thesis aims to acoustically examine the acquisition route of these complex emphatic consonants, focusing on both the consonantal and vocalic cues to the plain-emphatic contrast across different phonetic contexts. Specifically, this thesis acoustically examines the production of emphatic consonants across different word positions, initial, medial, and final, across three vocalic contexts, /aː/, /iː/, and /uː/, and whether the effect of the emphatic segment extends bidirectionally beyond the immediately adjacent vowel. Target consonants examined were the voiceless plain-emphatic obstruents /t/ vs. /tˤ/ and /s/ vs. /sˤ/. A single-word repetition task was used to elicit speech from 38 Saudi-Hijazi -Arabic-speaking children aged between 3;1 to 6;11, and 13 adults serving as reference data. The acoustic measurements taken were VOT of stops and F1 and F2 of adjacent vowels. Across these three studies, children demonstrate a non-linear developmental trajectory, initially showing a faster increase in the size of the plain-emphatic contrast with age, with the rate of this increase slowing down as children grow older. Furthermore, there is substantial alignment between child and adult production patterns concerning positional effects, vowel context effects, and emphasis spread patterns, highlighting the potential role of input on the development of emphatic consonants. Finally, female children produced, on average, larger contrasts than males. The findings of each study are discussed in relation to previous literature on emphatic production in adults, serving as a benchmark for understanding the developmental stages and strategies observed by children. References to various aspects of child phonology and production, including the cross-linguistic development of coarticulation, are also discussed.25 0Item Restricted Straddling Two Worlds: How Linguistic Backgrounds and Sociocultural Norms Influence the Experiences of Saudi Female Expats in Australia(University of Wollongong, 2023-03-08) Alhassoun, Lamia Abdulaziz; Ward, RowenaThis study constructs a collective story of Saudi female expats (SFEs) as they navigate the transition from their conservative society in Saudi Arabia to a new one in Australia. It examines the impact of the SFE’s Arabic background and their English learning experiences in Australia on their lives and explores SFEs perceptions of their self-representation in the social and educational milieu in Australia. Additionally, it sheds light on the intricate relationships between language, culture, gender and self-representation. The study employs a demographic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with twenty-two SFEs in Australia. The study adopts lenses from social identity theory (Erikson 1968; Tajfel & Turner 1979, 1986), Intragroup marginalisation (Castillo et al. 2007), Social learning theory (Bandura 1977; Ryle 2011) and Oberg's cultural shock theory (1960) to guide the analysis of the study data. The findings of this study reveal that SFEs, generally, have a positive attitude towards learning and using the English language. However, SFEs’ low self-confidence in their English language proficiency negatively impacted their cross-cultural interactions in Australia. The study attributes SFEs' low self-confidence to five factors: limited opportunities to practice English, a preference for socialising with Arabic speakers, the COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia's English education policies and limited interest in English improvement. The study also explores how SFEs represent themselves differently in Australia. Their reflections in the research interviews revealed that they define their ‘in’- and ‘out’-groups differently depending on the context in relation to their interlocutor’s ethnicity, gender, language and faith. SFEs indicated that when interacting with Saudi male compatriots, they tend to be formal and direct in line with the norms of their Saudi culture and upbringing marked by gender segregation. However, they are friendlier and more open with non-Saudi male interlocutors due to the more relaxed gender norms in Australia. One of the key findings is that SFEs’ interactions with non-Saudis are influenced by their sense of obligation to represent their faith and nationality in the best light. The study also shows that the SFE’s insufficient knowledge of Australian culture and their low confidence in their English skills, tends to make their interactions with native-English speakers to be direct and to the point. SFEs are aware that they can appear terse for this reason. The lack of opportunities to interact with the host/Australian community and learn about Australian culture was negatively impacted by the social isolation policies imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study contributes to the limited literature on the experiences of SFEs as they navigate cross-cultural contexts and self-representation in Australia. This study offers valuable insights into the real-world challenges experienced by SFEs in adjusting to a more liberal society while maintaining their cultural identity. It sheds light on their perceptions of self-representations and attitude towards learning and using English and straddling cultures in Australia. Practical implications for improving cross-cultural interaction and strategies for enhancing English language education programs to better accommodate the growing SFE community in Australia are discussed in the conclusion.47 0Item Restricted Examining the Retranslation Hypothesis in the Arabic Translations of Lady Chatterley’s(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-05-08) Albudairi, Yousef; Jaccomard, HélèneThe retranslation hypothesis developed by Antoine Berman and Paul Bensimon, which entails initial translations being domesticated and retranslations being foreignised, has been studied multiple times. However, in the case of English-Arabic translations, the hypothesis has not yet been fully examined. The aim of this thesis is to question the validity of the retranslation hypothesis when applied to the two Arabic translations of Lady Chatterley's Lover. To test the validity of the retranslation hypothesis, the two Arabic translations underwent two types of analysis. The quantitative analysis presents general information about all corpora, the Source Text (ST), translation 1 (T1) and translation 2 (T2). Such information helps in knowing the word count, lexical density and word frequencies, among other features that assist in forming a general view about the macro translation strategies applied in the Arabic translations. The qualitative analysis focuses on the three most challenging characteristics found in the ST: metaphor, explicit language and language variety. The analysis of these characteristics considers the use of the micro translation strategies utilised in each translation to overcome such challenges. In addition, the qualitative analysis sheds light on one aspect of the Arabic translations: the use of footnotes. All of this information, ranging from quantitative to qualitative, lead to a conclusion about the validity of the retranslation hypothesis. The results of both analyses proved that the two Arabic translations do not fully conform to the retranslation hypothesis.61 0