In this study of more than 1,000 typical and at-risk elementary Arabic-speaking students in Oman, we explore relationships between pragmatic (and other) language skills, literacy, cognition, and behavior and the degree to which demography impacts performance on associated tasks. We found, in most cases, that females performed better than males,…

The vocabulary research of the 1980s and 1990s brought a breath of fresh air into the language classroom. Teachers in many remote EFL locations had long suspected that vocabulary was their learners' main challenge, but there was little research evidence to confirm this or say what to do about it. Then, suddenly, work by Nation, Laufer, Meara,…

This dissertation investigates the morphology and syntax of the noun phrase in Mehri, a Modern South Arabian (Semitic) language spoken in Yemen and Oman. Using the framework of Distributed Morphology (DM), I focus on pronominal possessors and diminutive constructions while addressing themes of syncretism, concord, contextual allomorphy and…

In this paper we explore English pronunciation teaching within an English as an International Language (EIL) framework, arguing that teaching learners how to produce English phonemes can lead to an improvement in their aural ability. English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners often have difficulty discriminating between and producing…

Most information is still conveyed to university students through lectures. This necessitates that students have sophisticated listening and note-taking skills, and poses additional difficulties for non-native students. To identify areas for improvement, science lectures in English in the Sultanate of Oman were analyzed. The relationship between…