[PDF] Arabic Cross-dialectal Conversations with Implications for the

2450_430268209.pdf Arabic Cross-dialectal Conversations with Implications for the

Teaching of Arabic as a Second Language

Rasha Kadry Abdelatti Mohamed Soliman

Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of

PhD in Arabic Linguistics

The University of Leeds

Linguistics and Phonetics

School of Modern Languages and Cultures

July, 2014

ii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Rasha Kadry Abdelatti Mohamed Soliman to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and

Patents Act 1988.

© 2014 The University of Leeds and Rasha Kadry Abdelatti Mohamed Soliman iii

Dedication

To my parents

Hend El-Naggar and Kadry Soliman

iv

Acknowledgements

"In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. All praise to Allah by whose grace good deeds are achieved" I wish to express sincere gratitude and deep thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Melinda Whong for her advice, patience and encouragement. I owe her much for her intellectual guidance and moral support throughout every stage of my study and for all the invaluable skills she taught me which I know I will continue to grow and utilise. From the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Leeds, I would like to thank Ms. Karen Priestley for her excellent and prompt administrative support and Dr. Diane Nelson as my postgraduate tutor for encouraging me as well as many postgraduate students to participate in the organised annual PG conferences in which I received insightful feedback. I am indebted to all the Arabic speaking individuals who agreed to take part in this study, giving their time and effort and allowing me to record their conversations. Their participation is greatly appreciated. Special thanks to all those who helped me to record high quality dialectal sentences to use in my case study; Mr. Aimen Ghummed and Mr. Abdurraof Shitaw for their input in the Libyan dialect, Ms. Arwa Gandeel for her input in the Hijazi dialect and to my dear sister-in-law Asmaa Soliman for her input in the Levantine dialects. I am also very grateful to Professor. Dilworth Parkinson at Brigham Young University for allowing me to join the online Arabic-L mailing list through which I reached many Arabic linguists who provided me with support and references in analysing the urban dialects I used in my study. I am grateful to the Arabic students at the University of Manchester who wholeheartedly participated in the case-study of my research and to all those who gave me insight into their Arabic language learning needs. v I am heavily indebted to my beloved husband, Najeeb, for his support of my Ph.D. endeavour and for always being there for me throughout the exciting times of my study as well as the stressful ones. My love and thanks to my sweet children, Yusuf, Ismail and Haroon for innocently allowing me to take some of our time together to spend on my research and for always bringing smiles on my face when needed. My appreciation also goes to my sisters, brothers and friends for all their love, prayers and good wishes. Last but not least, I will always be grateful to my parents who always had confidence in me. I am grateful for the opportunities they opened up encouraging me to get into the field of Arabic language teaching and linguistics, for their trust and support in sending me to do my M.A. far away from them and for encouraging me to pursue my Ph.D. study. My deepest appreciation and heartfelt thanks go to them for their patience, their prayers, their sacrifice, their endurance, and for their love and endless support of my education. Thanks to all of you. Without your support this work would have never been possible. vi

Abstract

This research is divided into two interlinked parts. The first part reviews literature on the diglossia and variability of the Arabic language and investigates how mutual intelligibility is achieved in informal conversations between speakers of different Arabic dialects. 11 conversations were recorded between speakers of 12 Arabic dialects. Instances of borrowing from Modern Standard Arabic were observed and analysed. The participants were also interviewed after the recorded conversations in order to get more insight into the listening comprehension strategies that they applied to achieve intelligibility. The results show that the native speakers tend to rely mostly on their native dialect in cross-dialectal interaction with a much smaller number of borrowings from Modern Standard Arabic in comparison with previous studies. A number of listening strategies were observed to be used in order to aid intelligibility. These strategies included making use of the context, ignoring non- content words and making use of their linguistic knowledge and the root and pattern system in Arabic as a frame of reference in comprehending unfamiliar cognates. The analysis also showed that dialect familiarity has a major role in aiding comprehension between the native speakers of different Arabic dialects. The second part, first, examines the needs of learning Arabic as a second language in Higher Education, then presents a case study that tests the advanced Arabic learners͛ leǀel of cognate recognition in unfamiliar dialects and whether explicit strategy teaching and lexical training can improve their dialectal lexical comprehension. Five final year university students of Arabic with an advanced level in MSA and exposure to a dialect participated in this study. Pre and post-tests of dialectal listening comprehension were administered. The results of a higher score in the post-test confirmed that the explicit strategy training helped the Arabic students to achieve better comprehension of cognates in unfamiliar dialects. vii

Table of Contents

Dedication ......................................................................................................... iii

Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... iv

Abstract ............................................................................................................. vi

Table of Contents ...............................................................................................vii

List of Tables ...................................................................................................... xi

List of Figures .................................................................................................... xiii

List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................... xiv

Transliteration Scheme ...................................................................................... xv

Chapter 1: Introduction: The Arabic language and its diglossic nature .................. 1

1.1 What is Diglossia? ........................................................................................ 2

1.1.1 Views on diglossia ............................................................................ 5

1.1.2 Diglossia versus standardisation ...................................................... 7

1.1.3 Diglossia versus bilingualism ............................................................ 8

1.1.4 Diglossia versus code-switching and code-mixing ........................... 9

1.1.5 Diglossia versus register ................................................................. 10

1.1.6 Diglossia and dialects ..................................................................... 11

1.2 Arabic Diglossia .......................................................................................... 12

1.2.1 Brief history of Arabic diglossia and its emergence ....................... 12

1.2.2 The standardisation of Arabic ........................................................ 13

1.2.3 The languages of the occupied lands ............................................. 14

1.2.4 The current Arabic varieties ........................................................... 15

1.2.4.1 Classical Arabic (CA) ........................................................... 15

1.2.4.2 Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) ......................................... 16

1.2.4.3 The Arabic dialects ............................................................. 17

1.2.4.4 Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA) ........................................... 19

1.3 Overview of this research project .............................................................. 21

Chapter 2: Cross-dialectal conversations: Literature Review .............................. 24

2.1 Cross-dialectal conversations and mutual intelligibility ............................ 24

2.2 Arabic cross-dialectal conversations .......................................................... 26

2.2.1 Blanc͛s study (1960) ....................................................................... 28

2.2.2 Ezzat͛s study (1974)........................................................................ 29

viii

2.2.3 Abu-Melhim͛s study (1992) ............................................................ 31

2.2.4 Abu-Haidar͛s study (1994) ............................................................. 33

2.2.5 Shiri͛s study (2002) ......................................................................... 34

2.2.6 Limitations in the studies on Arabic cross-dialectal

communication .............................................................................. 35

2.3 Language variability in TASL ....................................................................... 39

2.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 43

Part I Cross-dialectal conversations in Arabic: language choice and

comprehension strategies ......................................................................... 45

Chapter 3: Investigating native Arabic cross-dialectal conversations:

Methodology ............................................................................................ 46

3.1 The research questions .............................................................................. 47

3.2 Methodology .............................................................................................. 48

3.2.1 The participants ............................................................................. 49

3.2.2 The settings and instructions given to the participants ................ 51

3.2.3 The data collection and analysis .................................................... 53

Chapter 4: The language of cross-dialectal conversations: Results and

Discussion ................................................................................................ 58

4.1 Results ........................................................................................................ 58

4.1.1 Borrowings from MSA by participant and by conversation ........... 59

4.1.2 Cognate borrowings ....................................................................... 61

4.1.3 Non-cognate borrowings ............................................................... 64

4.1.4 Variables influencing MSA borrowings .......................................... 70

4.2 Discussion ................................................................................................... 73

4.2.1 Research question 1: Which linguistic elements are

borrowed from MSA in informal cross-dialectal communication? ............................................................................ 73

4.2.2 Research question 2: Are there any linguistic or non-

linguistic variables that may influence MSA borrowings? ............. 76 Chapter 5: Native listening comprehension strategies in Arabic cross- dialectal conversations: Results and Discussion ......................................... 79

5.1 Results ........................................................................................................ 80

5.1.1 Successful comprehension ............................................................. 80

5.1.1.1 Strategies applied by the speaker ...................................... 81

5.1.1.2 Strategies applied by the listener ...................................... 83

5.1.2 Comprehension failure ................................................................... 92

5.2 Discussion ................................................................................................... 96

ix

5.2.1 Research question 3: What are the strategies that the NSs

apply and the factors that influence comprehensibility in cross-dialectal communication? .................................................... 97 Chapter 6: Arabic cross-dialectal conversations: Conclusions ........................... 101

6.1 Findings .................................................................................................... 102

6.2 Implications for TASL ................................................................................ 108

6.3 Limitations and areas for further research .............................................. 109

Part II Implications for the Teaching of Arabic as a Second Language ............... 113 Chapter 7: Arabic as a Second language͗ Learners͛ needs in Higher

Education ............................................................................................... 114

7.1 Previous studies on the learning needs of Arabic language students ..... 114

7.2 The learning needs of students of Arabic at the University of

Manchester: A pilot study ..................................................................... 120

7.2.1 A description of the questionnaire and its administration .......... 120

7.2.2 The Results ................................................................................... 124

7.2.3 Discussion of the results of the questionnaire ............................ 132

7.3 Conclusions .............................................................................................. 138

7.4 Points to consider if administering the questionnaire in the future ....... 139

Chapter 8: A multi-case study on L2 listening comprehension of cross- dialectal Arabic: Methodology ................................................................ 141

8.1 The study design ...................................................................................... 142

8.2 The participants........................................................................................ 143

8.3 The setting ................................................................................................ 146

8.4 The test instrument .................................................................................. 146

8.5 Procedure and ethical considerations ..................................................... 154

8.6 The dialectal training intervention and the group discussions ................ 154

8.7 Procedures for the data analysis .............................................................. 156

Chapter 9: A multi-case study on the L2 listening comprehension of cross- dialectal Arabic: Results and Discussion .................................................. 160

9.1 Results ...................................................................................................... 161

9.1.1 Correct pre-test responses by dialect .......................................... 161

9.1.2 Correct pre-test responses by type of morpheme ...................... 162

9.1.3 The effects of the training on their recognition of cognates in

unfamiliar dialects ........................................................................ 165

9.1.4 The effects of the training on their recognition of root and

functional morphemes ................................................................. 167

9.1.5 Results of the interviews .............................................................. 168

x

9.1.5.1 The importance of learning about the pronunciation

rules and the corresponding sounds in the Arabic varieties ............................................................................... 168

9.1.5.2 Combining morphemes in the dialects ............................ 169

9.1.5.3 Linking between the unfamiliar and the familiar

varieties ............................................................................... 169

9.1.5.4 The effectiveness of the strategy training ....................... 171

9.2 Discussion of the results .......................................................................... 171

9.2.1 Research question 4: To what extent can the advanced

university Arabic students achieve successful dialectal comprehension? .......................................................................... 172

9.2.2 Research Ƌuestion 5͗ Can edžplicit instruction of the NSs͛

listening strategies affect the level of L2 dialectal lexical comprehension? .......................................................................... 175

Chapter 10: Conclusions .................................................................................. 179

10.1 Findings: L2 comprehension of lexis in unfamiliar dialects ................... 180

10.2 Limitations of the case-study ................................................................. 182

10.3 Conclusions of both parts of this study project ..................................... 183

10.4 Questions for further research .............................................................. 185

List of References ............................................................................................ 188

Appendix A: Consent form for recording the NSs cross-dialectal

conversations ......................................................................................... 195

Appendix B: Resources used to verify the MSA borrowings into the dialects

of the participants .................................................................................. 196

Appendix C: Needs Analysis Questionnaire ...................................................... 198 Appendix D: Consent Form for the needs analysis questionnaire ..................... 203 Appendix E: The tested words in the case study .............................................. 204 Appendix E.1: The tested words in the pre-test of the case-study and

their cognates in MSA ........................................................................... 204

Appendix E.2: The tested words in the post-test of the case-study and

their cognates in MSA ........................................................................... 205

Appendix F: The sentences used in the case-study test .................................... 207 Appendix F.1: The sentences used in the pre-test ......................................... 207 Appendix F.2: The sentences used in the post-test ....................................... 209 Appendix G: The consent form and answer sheet for the dialectal L2

recognition case-study ............................................................................ 211

xi

List of Tables

Table 1.1: The functional situations for H and L in diglossic languages according to

Ferguson͛s definition ................................................................................................... 4

Table 3.1: The participants ........................................................................................ 50

Table 3.2: The conversations .................................................................................... 52

Table 4.1: The number of MSA borrowings by participant and by conversation ..... 59 Table 4.2: The borrowed MSA cognates, their dialectal equivalents and the topics in

which they occurred.................................................................................................. 61

Table 4.3: The borrowed MSA non-cognates, their dialectal equivalents and the

topics in which they occurred ................................................................................... 65

Table 4.4: The linguistic features of the cognates and non-cognates borrowed from

MSA ........................................................................................................................... 69

Table 4.5: The number of borrowed MSA elements by part of speech ................... 70 Table 4.6: The number of borrowed MSA elements by gender ............................... 71 Table 5.1: Familiar dialectal non-cognates and their frequency of use ................... 85 Table 5.2: The words that broke comprehension and their frequency of use ......... 94 Table 7.1͗ Learners͛ top ten reasons for choosing Arabic in Belnap͛s first surǀey

(1986) ...................................................................................................................... 116

Table 7.2͗ Learners͛ top ten reasons for choosing Arabic in Belnap͛s second surǀey

(2006) ...................................................................................................................... 117

Table 7.3: The number of participants at different years of study ......................... 125 Table 7.4: The top ten learning needs with the highest agreement responses ..... 126 Table 7.5͗ ͞Agree" responses to Academic purposes ranked according to priority

................................................................................................................................. 128

Table 7.6͗ ͞Agree" responses to religious purposes ranked according to priority . 129 Table 7.7: Responses to personal and social purposes ranked according to priority

................................................................................................................................. 130

Table 7.8͗ ͞Agree" responses to the Media and cultural understanding purposes131 Table 7.9: Students responses towards learning the Arabic dialects ..................... 132

Table 8.1: The demographics of the participants ................................................... 145

Table 8.2: Morpho-phonological differences between the cognates in the tests . 148

Table 8.3: The functional morphemes in both tests ............................................... 158

Table 8.4: The tested elements in each dialect in both tests ................................. 158

Table 9.1: Correct pre-test responses by dialect .................................................... 162

Table 9.2: Correct pre-test responses by type of morpheme ................................. 163 xii Table 9.3: The total number and percentages of the linguistic elements that were

correctly translated in both tests ............................................................................ 164

Table 9.4: Correct post-test responses by dialect................................................... 166

Table 9.5: Correct post-test responses by type of morpheme ............................... 167 xiii

List of Figures

Figure 5.1: Observations of the actions taken by the speakers and the listeners in cross-dialectal interaction ͙͙͙͙͙͙͙YYXXYYYYYYYYYYY