Investigates both the explicit and implicit sociocultural messages conveyed by language textbooks. Twelve Arabic textbooks used in the junior high schools in the Hebrew educational system in Israel were examined. Findings indicate that Arab society is presented in a partial, subjective, and unbalanced manner. (Author/JL)

This special issue, written in French, is dedicated to highlighting the past 74 issues of the journal since its inception 35 years ago. The first article reflects on the journal's history and evolution, in particular with regard to volume, the distribution of languages (French, German Italian, and Raeto-Roman), the distribution of articles written…

Discusses communication misunderstandings between peoples of different cultures, suggesting that the major barriers to intercultural communication are often political and international ethnocentricities. Religion is sometimes an even stronger source of ethnocentrism. Provides the example of the Arabic expression, "inshallah," commonly used in…

Examines the extent to which Arab students rely on their first language (L1) prepositional knowledge in acquiring an understanding of prepositional usage in English. Identifies areas in which negative and positive transfer occur in the use of prepositions in English. (Author/VWL)

Assesses the attitudes of Arab parents living in the United States toward their children's bilingual education programs and the role in their children's education. Findings revealed that parents highly valued their child's placement in a bilingual class environment because of its more positive, accepting atmosphere and attention to Arab culture.…

This paper examines the negative impact the linguistic situation in the Arab world, which is characterized by diglossia, has on Arab children's ability to acquire reading and writing skills in Arabic and on their academic attainment in general. Discusses specific obstacles posed by contemporary diglossia to the acquisition of literacy, including…

Investigates Jordanian university students' attitudes toward code-switching (CS) and code mixing (CM) to find out when and why they code switch and the most frequent English expressions that they use in Arabic discourse. A three-section questionnaire was distributed to students (n=352). Students show both positive and negative attitudes toward…

Examines the role and significance of systematic error correction and explicit grammatical explanation in adult foreign language education. The type and nature of certain grammatical errors which are characteristic of the interlanguage of Arab learners of English as a second language and which seem insusceptible to defossilization are…

Analysis of errors collected from English essays of native Arabic-speaking university students and their translations from Arabic into English identified 14 error classifications, with the vast majority of errors attributable to negative transfer or interference from Arabic. (CB)

Analysis of content area writing of Arab university students (N=96) studying English for Academic Purposes revealed problems in three major categories: sentence structure, paragraph structure, and content. Weakness in foreign language writing skills appeared related to weakness in mastery of Arabic writing skills. (Author/CB)

Discusses the attitudes of the Arabic-speaking peoples toward the learning of Western languages, particularly English. Ethnic Arabs regard Arabic as a God-given language. The Arab world is suspicious of any form of foreign influence: political, economic, cultural or educational. A case study of Lebanon is presented. (21 references) (CK)

Focuses on the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) by Arabic-speaking secondary school students. To see which variety students transferred from, they were asked to translate into English two versions of a short Arabic text: one Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and the other non-standard Arabic (NSA). Results indicate the importance of…

Cultural and linguistic information useful to teachers of native Arabic-speakers in English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual education is offered. This includes background information on geographic, political, religious, and ethnic divisions, stereotypes commonly held by Arabs about Americans and American society, common stereotypes about…

Overviews a bilingual program serving urban schoolchildren who come from Arabic-speaking homes. The article describes the mission of the program as the preparation of students, in close cooperation with their families, to become contributing citizens in a changing society by providing a challenging curriculum to develop knowledge and a sense of…

Ten articles are presented in this volume on contrastive linguistics. The articles and authors are as follows: "Contrastive Grammar: Theory and Practice" (F. Aarts and H. Wekker); "On the Semantic and Morphological Status of Reversative Verbs in English and German" (W.-P. Funk); "The Problem of Directionality in…