SACM - United States of America
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9668
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Item Restricted The Role of L1 Dialect Phonotactics on the Production of L2 English Phonotactics by Saudi EFL Learners(University of Mississippi, 2024-05-01) Balbaid, Abdullah Ahmad; Schaefer, VinceThis study investigates the phonological challenges and adaptive strategies employed by 30 first-year university students majoring in English from three distinct Saudi Arabian dialect backgrounds—Najdi, Hijazi, and Hasawi—in perceiving and producing English onset biconsonant and triconsonant clusters. Exploring dialectal variations, the research aims to understand how these phonological characteristics influence the acquisition and intelligibility of English pronunciation among Saudi learners. Utilizing a combination of perception tasks through ABX discrimination tasks and production tasks inspired by the Labovian model, the study provides insights into the dialect-specific phonological challenges faced by the participants. Key findings reveal that Najdi speakers demonstrate higher proficiency in both perceiving and producing English consonant clusters, particularly biconsonant clusters, compared to their Hijazi and Hasawi counterparts. This proficiency underscores the significant role of L1 phonotactic knowledge in L2 phonological learning, highlighting the adaptability and cognitive flexibility of Najdi speakers in handling both familiar and unfamiliar phonological patterns. Furthermore, the study identifies distinct phonological repair strategies employed by speakers to address challenges unique to their dialects. While Najdi speakers commonly substitute /p/ with /b/, Hijazi speakers occasionally adapt by substituting /θ/ with /t/, reflecting the phonotactic constraints and opportunities within their dialect for phonological adaptation. The investigation into the impact of dialectal variations on L2 English pronunciation intelligibility indicates that Hijazi and Hasawi speakers' reliance on repair strategies and their challenges with clusters not present in their L1 dialect suggest a noticeable L1 influence, thereby affecting their pronunciation intelligibility. Contributing to a broader understanding of second language phonological acquisition, this study emphasizes the need for dialect-sensitive language instruction, advocating for pedagogical strategies that recognize the unique phonological landscapes of learners. This approach aims to enrich language teaching practices within linguistically diverse settings, fostering more effective and engaging language learning experiences across different educational levels.44 0Item Restricted THE PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION OF EMPHASIS IN QASSIMI ARABIC(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-12-01) Alrashed, Abdulmajeed; Blevins, James; Kwon, HarimThis dissertation explores emphasis effects (EE) in Qassimi Arabic (QA), examining whether EE functions as a phonetic or phonological process. EE is a well-documented phenomenon in Arabic linguistics, involving the influence of emphatic consonants on neighboring segments (Ghazali, 1977; Card, 1983; Davis, 1995; among others). The study also investigates emphasis perception in QA, specifically whether EE cues assist native QA listeners in identifying preceding or following consonants as emphatic or plain. As prior research exploring EE in various Arabic varieties has revealed variation among them, and limited research exists on emphasis perception by native Arabic listeners, this dissertation addresses these gaps by examining EE production and emphasis perception in the understudied variety of QA. In the production experiment, dynamic aspects of leftward and rightward EE on QA vowels were examined by analyzing second formants (F2) at 11 temporal points. Results indicate that leftward EE had a categorical effect on non-high vowels [a] and [aː], as well as the high front vowel [i], impacting them throughout their duration, providing evidence for it being a phonological process in QA. In contrast, rightward EE primarily affected the vowel onset, suggesting it as a gradual phonetic process rather than a categorical phonological one. In the perception experiments, the perceptual correlates of emphasis in QA were investigated using the gating paradigm (Grosjean, 1980). Native QA listeners accurately identified the following consonant using leftward EE cues, even within the shortest gate containing one-third of the vowel, indicating proficiency in using leftward EE cues throughout the vowel. However, for rightward EE cues, accuracy in identifying the preceding consonant as emphatic or plain improved significantly only when the entire vowel duration was audible. These findings align with the production experiment, confirming leftward EE as a phonological process and rightward EE as a phonetic process. The dissertation’s results have implications for understanding EE and emphasis perception in QA, emphasizing the importance of considering both phonological and phonetic processes when investigating EE and highlighting the significance of coarticulatory information in rightward emphasis perception. This nuanced understanding advances research into emphasis across Arabic varieties and Semitic languages.56 0Item Restricted Arabic Diacritics And Reading: A Proposed Psycholinguistic Approch To Foreign/Second-Language Pedagogy(Saudi Digital Library, 2023) Alqazlan, Bandar; Morkus, NaderArabic orthography is mainly presented either in shallow orthography (with all diacritics) for novice students or in deep orthography (without diacritics) for superior readers. However, the shallow orthography is heavily loaded with diacritics which may burden the reading process, whereas deep orthography can cause ambiguity (heterophonic homographic words). Building upon the findings of current psycholinguistic research, this study introduces a systematic approach to effectively and economically address the issue of diacritics and reading. This proposed approach begins with shallow orthography for new words the first six to twelve times they are encountered to assure lexical internalization and then ends with the newly-coined term semi-deep orthography in which only the needed diacritics are used. The semi-deep orthography is employed based on two principles: word frequency and ambiguity within the root-pattern system. The first principle is word frequency, in which the top 5000 high-frequency words, accounting for approximately 90% of written discourse, do not need diacritics. The second principle is ambiguity within the root-pattern system, since this system produces nearly 85% of Arabic vocabulary and thus provides the basic unwritten-vowel framework required for reading. However, occasionally ambiguity emerges within the system, for example when diacritics are required to distinguish between the active and passive forms of a verb.34 0