Discusses the status of teaching culture in the Arabic language curriculum. Ten cultural learning objectives for students of Arabic are presented, and examples of how culture capsules and culture assimilators can be used in class are included in Appendices. Three difficulties in teaching Arabic culture are described. (Author/LMO)

University students in developing societies find it difficult to learn in a nonindigenous language of instruction. The experiences of an American professor who participated in the English Language Difficulties Committee of an Arab medical college are described. Faculty factionalism, curriculum policy, and national aspirations toward…

Demonstrates the value of proverbs in developing the cross-linguistic understanding of professionals involved in intercultural situations. It is proposed that proverbs can provide insight into the symbol systems of English, Malay, and Arab cultures. (17 references) (Author/CK)

Explored the hypothesis that Arab learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) transfer Arabic text organization features into their English writing by examining essays written by 30 Arab ESL students and 30 non-Arab ESL students. The results indicated little evidence of transfer in either group. Implications for further research are discussed.…

Discusses a study on the untutored acquisition of possessive constructions in Dutch by two Turkish and two Moroccan adults during the first three years of their stay in the Netherlands. The focus is on the order of the owner and the possession in possessive constructions. (28 references) (JL)

Attempts to describe the interpersonal variation in interlanguage tense and aspect systems of four French/Moroccan Arabic learners of second language (L2) Spanish in a natural setting. In addition to noting differences in the way these four learners use L2 verbal morphology to construct their narratives, results also support previous research on…

Investigates the effect of vowels on reading accuracy in Arabic orthography. Finds that vowels had a significant effect on reading accuracy of poor and skilled readers in reading each of four kinds of texts. (NH)

Highlights the sixth Command Language Program Manager seminar, hosted by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, which focused on language training opportunities that are available now as well as those that will be in the future. New initiatives discussed include an Arabic in Action course, Web-based language training, training…

Compared two Arabic stories and their English translations and two Arabic and English stories with reference to sentence organization, coordination, and subordination. Showed that Arabic and English sentences are differently organized, coordination is more common in Arabic than in English, while subordination is more frequent in English than in…

Reports on an investigation into the role played by knowledge of both "icraab" and vocabulary in the reading comprehension of American learners of Arabic as a foreign language. Two groups, proficient and less proficient, of nonnative readers of Arabic read an expository text, wrote an immediate recall protocol in their first language to measure…

The present study investigated Arabic internet websites especially designed for pre-school children. A sample of 136 Arabic websites for kids of different ages was located and browsed. The sample covered websites specialized in stories, songs, games, kids' magazines, drawing and so on. It was found that no Arabic websites for pre-school kids are…

Item responses by adult Egyptian native speakers of Arabic on the ALIGU test battery were analyzed statistically to determine which items deviated significantly from the expected frequency of correct responses, and which item distractors were chosen most frequently. Thirty-two of 100 grammar responses showed significant incorrect responses, and on…

A curriculum model for teaching Arabic that closely follows the "Natural Approach" is outlined. The method stresses skill development through language use in a variety of realistic situations from the outset of the course. It differs from traditional approaches to Arabic instruction in its emphasis on the communication of meaningful…

This transcript and guide of a two-cassette course is designed to assist native Arabic-speaking immigrants eliminate their foreign accents. The course is appropriate for either individual or group study. The guide includes narrative and taped demonstrations of American English that pinpoint typical phonological barriers and pronunciation…

THE PRESENT PROGRESS REPORT DESCRIBES INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE TEACHING OF ARABIC WRITING AND PHONOLOGY, BASED ON THE RESULTS OF (1) A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PHONOLOGIES OF AMERICAN ENGLISH AND MODERN LITERARY ARABIC, (2) AN ANALYSIS OF MODERN LITERARY ARABIC WRITING, AND (3) A WORD STUDY OF 11 ELEMENTARY ARABIC TEXTBOOKS. (FOR A…