Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/10
Browse
4 results
Search Results
Item Restricted The Ianguage Attitudes of Saudi Arabic Speakers Towards the Speech of Other Major Vernacular Varieties of Arabic(Saudi Digital Library, 2025-03-03) Albogami, Haitham; Griffiths, MarkLanguage attitudes research in Saudi Arabia is in its early stages, and rarely goes beyond the boundaries of Saudi Arabia. There remains a gap in our knowledge of Saudis' attitudes towards non-Saudi dialects. This study examines Saudi Arabic speakers’ attitudes toward the speech of five major vernacular varieties of Arabic: Gulf, Iraqi, Levantine, Egyptian, and Maghrebi. The findings revealed a clear hierarchy of attitudes. Gulf Arabic was rated the highest across most labels, while Maghrebi Arabic was the lowest. Iraqi, Levantine and Egyptian competed in the middle spots, with an association of humour and closeness to MSA with Egyptian and Levantine Arabic respectively. Using a verbal guise technique (VGT) combined with a semantic differential scale and ranking tasks, this study collected and analysed quantitative and qualitative data from Saudi participants. The results suggested that attitudes toward these dialects are influenced by a combination of linguistic, sociopolitical, and cultural factors. Exploratory Factor Analyses were conducted on the five speakers, revealing five different dimensional models. These factor structures uncovered patterns of attitudes, offering a deeper look into stereotypes associated with the five varieties. By integrating culture-specific constructs (e.g., Sadr al-Majlis as a social status indicator), this study highlights the need for culture-appropriate instruments in language attitudes research. The findings highlight how media, cultural proximity, and stereotypes shape these attitudes.9 0Item Restricted The Use of Adjective Intensifiers by Najdi Dialect Speakers in Riyadh(University of Leeds, 2024) Alfuhaydi, Randah Abdullah; Evans, Mel; Wilson, James; Khamam, RubaThis thesis explores the functional devices used for adjective intensification by Najdi dialect speakers in Riyadh and the linguistic and social parameters conditioning their usage by operationalising a sociolinguistic variationist analysis. This study is one of the first investigating intensifiers in the Najdi dialect. The corpus in this study, which is based on interviews, consists of 148,023 words. Adjective intensifiers in the dataset are categorised according to the model of Quirk et al. (1985). Among the 3,508 adjectives in the data, only 540 (15.39%) were intensified. Within the adjective intensification system of Najdi dialect speakers, amplifiers (e.g., marrah ‘very’) were the most frequent, followed by emphasisers (e.g., waḷḷah ‘truly’) and downtoners (e.g., šwayy ‘a bit’). Within amplifiers, boosters like marrah ‘very’ were more frequent compared to maximisers such as tamāman ‘completely’. The social factors investigated in the variationist analysis are gender, age and education, while the linguistic factors are adjective semantic category, adjective syntactic function, adjective polarity, adjective emotionality, the seriousness of discussion topics and position of intensifier. Amplifiers were found to be highly sensitive to social factors, while downtoners were more conditioned by linguistic factors. Female speakers used amplifiers more frequently than male speakers. The two most common amplifiers, marrah and jiddan, had two different profiles and analysis of their usage in the aggregate data and in the speech of outliers underscored many social and linguistic aspects involved in their usage and change. Further, the booster marrah seems to be an enregistered marker of feminine linguistic style. Overall, this study paves the way for future research on Arabic intensifiers. It offers theoretical and methodological insights for advancing the field of sociolinguistics, especially in relation to the variation of discourse-pragmatic features, the stylistic analysis of individual speakers and the implementation of digital discourse in sociolinguistic enquiries. It is also likely to be significant across various linguistic disciplines, such as language teaching and language acquisition9 0Item Restricted WORLD ENGLISHES: THE ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS AT A SAUDI UNIVERSITY WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY(The University of Mississippi, 2025-05) Aldawsari, Abdullah; Schaefer, VanceThis study investigates the attitudes and perceptions of English department students at a Saudi university towards varieties of World Englishes (WEs) based on Kachru’s (1985, 1992) three concentric circles model. The study is guided by four central research questions; it investigates Saudi university students’ awareness of WEs varieties. It also explores their attitudes towards several varieties of WEs, specifically American English (AE), Indian English (IE), and Saudi English (SE). Furthermore, it investigates their attitudes and perceptions towards learning WEs varieties. Lastly, it explores their perceptions of key dimensions of WEs, including legitimacy and ownership as they pertain to SE. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study employs a verbal guise task (VGT), a semantic differential scale (SDS), a Likert-scale questionnaire (LSQ), and semi-structured interviews. The research design consists of a pilot study and a main study. Findings seem to indicate a preference for Inner Circle varieties (e.g., AE), perceiving them as more competent and legitimate. Notably, there appears to be a growing recognition of SE by Saudi learners within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as a legitimate English variety. This may highlight an emerging endonormative orientation in the Saudi context. However, perceptions of ownership of English appear to remain contested within the KSA due to the continued influence of exonormative orientations in educational curricula and the limited institutional recognition or exposure to SE. This study contributes to applied linguistics by expanding attitudinal research within the Expanding Circle, specifically in the Saudi context. It highlights the pedagogical relevance of incorporating locally recognized English varieties, such as SE, into language curricula in the KSA. This study calls for a more pluralistic approach to English language pedagogy in the KSA, which reflects the sociolinguistic realities of English use and empowers learners to claim ownership of their local variety (SE). At the same time, it underscores the need to reflect on the reliance on Inner Circle norms within the context of the KSA.25 0Item Restricted A Mixed-methods Investigation of Saudis’ Attitudes towards and Experiences with Contemporary Saudi Arabic(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-08) Al-Hakami, Ahmed Yahya Mohammed; Smith, NicholasThis study is a mixed-methods investigation of language attitudes in Saudi Arabia. It investigates Saudis’ attitudes towards three Saudi varieties, namely, Qassimi Arabic (spoken in Central Saudi Arabia), Hasawi Arabic (spoken in Eastern Saudi Arabia) and Jizani Arabic (spoken in Southern Saudi Arabia). While most previous studies focus on the production of Saudi varieties (Al-Rojaie 2021b, p.472; Alhazmi & Alfalig 2022, p.114), the present study focuses on the perception of such varieties. Language perception can lead to the formation of attitudes, which may cause linguistic prejudice or discrimination. Accordingly, this study investigates: What are Saudis’ attitudes towards and experiences with contemporary Saudi Arabic varieties, and what implications can be drawn from them? The study was conducted via three phases, namely, the keywords task (Garrett et al. 2005a) (Phase 1), the verbal-guise task (Dragojevic & Goatley-Soan 2022) (Phase 2) and the semi-structured interviews (Phase 3). Phase 1 elicited spontaneous impressions of the varieties under investigation (N = 148). Subsequently, attitudinal evaluations of the three varieties were elicited from socially-stratified respondents in Phase 2 (N = 411). Extending the study through Phase 3, respondents were interviewed about their attitudes, the factors underlying their attitudes and their experiences of linguistic discrimination (N = 17). Although preliminary analysis indicated generally positive attitudes towards the varieties, there were significant differences in the attitudes. The respondents’ attitudes were associated with their demographics. The older respondents, the highly-educated respondents and respondents from Central Saudi Arabia consistently expressed more negative attitudes, compared to their counterparts. Furthermore, Social, Personal and Linguistic attitude factors were identified. Finally, the study uncovered narrations of linguistic prejudice and discrimination in Saudi Arabia. The findings can be used to understand and work with the sociolinguistic significance of Saudi varieties. The study produced various theoretical, methodological and practical implications for different domains within Saudi Arabia.50 0