A study examined the different strategies used by speakers of Egyptian Arabic to ward off the potential effects of the evil eye, specifically the responding strategies to compliments perceived as invocations of evil as it relates to the gender of the recipient of the compliment and the social context in which the compliment takes place. Social…

Discusses some of the difficulties that arise when an Arabic-English translator is required to find cultural equivalents for words or concepts that do not exist in one of the languages. Examples are given in the areas of ecology, material culture, social culture, political culture, and religious culture. (EKN)

Sequence of consonants in English and Arabic is discussed phonologically. It is suggested that such detailed contrastive studies are useful to: (1) second language teachers in pinpointing areas for classroom attention, (2) language typologists, and (3) typists and printers. (JB)

Investigates word identification in Arabic and basic cognitive processes in reading-disabled (RD) and normal level readers of the same chronological age, and in younger normal readers at the same reading level. Indicates significant deficiencies in morphology, working memory, and syntactic and visual processing, with the most severe deficiencies…

Reviews the reading process in Arabic as a function of vowels and sentence context. Reviews reading accuracy and reading comprehension results in light of cross-cultural reading to develop a more comprehensive reading theory. Presents the phonology, morphology and sentence context of Arabic in two suggested reading models for poor/beginner Arabic…

Investigation of speech of Baghdadi men and women showed that, in Baghdad, the prestige variety of spoken Arabic was in the direction of the standard, and that more women than men favored this variety. However, in the past, when Baghdadi women had less access to standard Arabic, men more often spoke a dialect approximating the standard variety.…

Investigates the pragmatic functions of topicalizing subject (S) and object (O) in Standard Arabic and attempts to find a functional explanation for the occasional preposing/topicalization of S and/or O over the verb (V) to yield a construction in the form of SVO order or any other order sanctioned by the rules of Arabic grammar. (22 references)…

Investigates language acquisition and development in 86 infants of 1-24 months who are native speakers of Arabic. Findings are discussed in terms of the stages of language acquisition and development and differences between males and females in the process. (RJC)

Examines doublets in Arabic, discussing the alterations between the determinants in the doublets, and shows that the alterations are the result of phonological changes. It is concluded that the phonological changes are in agreement with changes that have occurred in other Semitic languages and in modern Arabic dialects. (30 references) (Author/VWL)

Advocates alternative approach to teaching of Arabic as a foreign language, which is based on integration of a spoken Arabic dialect and Modern Standard Arabic in a single course of instruction. This proposal is designed to alleviate some of the problems currently faced by Arabic programs in preparing students for the complex sociolinguistic…

Examines relationships between phonological skills and reading in 143 Arab children in Arab villages of central Israel. Finds that a word recognition test was highly correlated with phonological skills, semantic processing, syntactic knowledge, and short-term memory, and that poor readers significantly lagged in skill development. Discusses…

Explores the effects of the relationship between exposure to two languages in childhood and metalinguistic abilities. Arabic-speaking children who had been exposed to both spoken and literary Arabic were compared to Russian-Hebrew bilinguals and Hebrew monolinguals. Subjects were kindergarten students; they were tested on language arbitrariness,…

An ethnographic study of adult literacy classes in Egypt depicted rote recitation, copying, and dictation as forms of ritual that maintain social order. A sequence of framing, modeling, practicing, performing, and evaluating was followed. Focus was on correct performance rather than interpretation, comprehension, or critical evaluation. (SK)

This five-language glossary of vocational-technical terms is intended to serve a dual purpose: (1) to establish a generally acceptable international terminology in five of the working languages of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco)--Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish--in order to facilitate…