Saudi National Day

I wish..

I wish I had a pair of wings, just like last night in my dreams😴.. I was lost in paradise, I wish I'd never opened my eyes 💔

Does a common market need a common language?

The Risks of Laissez Faire Language Policies
The UE and languages: does a common market need a common language?
pp. 7-13

The Presenter: Reem ☺

The UE and languages: does a common market need a common language?

► The EU

A group of European countries that participates in the world economy as one economic unit and operates under one official currency, the euro.

► A Common Market

the first stage towards the creation of a single market.

Continued…

► The eleven official languages of the fifteen EU member states:

 Danish + Dutch + English + Finnish + French + German + Greek + Italian + Portuguese + Spanish + Swedish

► EU institutions:

  The Commission in Brussels + The European Council + The European Parliament + The European Court of Justice

Continued…
■Speakers of the eleven EU languages:

Continued…

In principle, what happens to languages in each member state is their own concern.

This follows the subsidiarity principle► decisions should be taken locally rather than centrally.

It is assumed that: 1. Each EU state is a linguistic island. 2. EU policies do not impact on all European languages.

A common EU policy► national policies and interests are coordinated, negotiated, and agreed on at the supranational EU level.

The supranational► the EU level that merges the concerns of member states.

Continued…

The EU allocates funds to various activities.         An example ► Under earlier schemes, there was funding for the translation of creative writing from one EU official language to another.

Many aspects of national, sub-national, and supranational language policy have been of concern to the Commission and Parliament.                        An example ► A White Paper on Teaching and learning: towards the learning society in 1995 recommends that education should serve to make all EU citizens competent in three EU languages.

► The European Union is a test case for the maintenance of linguistic diversity, but language policies in the EU reflect many unresolved and interlocking paradoxes and tensions:

a legacy of ‘nation’ states, ‘national’ interests and languages

 the formal equality of EU member states and their languages

 the onward thrust of Americanization, cultural homogenization and the hegemony of English

 languages seen as purely technical, pragmatic tools

 Germany as a demographically and economically dominant force in Europe

 English being promoted as a linguistic panacea

But

Supranational integration, and the internationalization of many domains.

A pecking order of states and languages

The celebration of European of European linguistic diversity and multilingualism

Languages as identity markers for individuals

German progressively marginalized in other fields

Less than half of the rest are proficient in English as a foreign language

Continued…

► Great care is needed in distinguishing between language policy and practice in supranational EU institutions and in member states.

 ► If Europe is in a process of uniting politically and culturally, the role of its languages in supranational affairs is a central and sensitive issue.

The next topic will be:
 What is Language Policy?

Linguistic Genocide

LINGUISTIC GENOCIDE: COLONIAL LANGUAGE POLICIES TOWARDS ARABIC AND ARABIC SCRIPTS IN NON-ARABIC SPEAKING MUSLIM COUNTRIES

7-13

Presented by: Reem Asiri

Under the Supervision of: Prof. Abdullah Alkahtani

Content

 Definition of linguicism

Aims of the colonizer countries

The two forms of linguicism

Conclusion

Sources

Linguicism = Imperialism

“The dominance asserted and retained by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages.” (Phillipson, 1992)

Aims of Colonizer Countries K

► The colonizer countries aimed to:

1.Replace the role of Arabic as a lingua franca with colonial languages.

2.Stress the dominance and the prominence of the colonial language.

► This type of colonialist language policy fits Phillipson’s theory of “linguicism”.

Major Colonial Language Policies Towards Arabic and Arabic Scripts (The Focus of this Study)

b. Eradicating Arabic and the Arabic script as the medium of literacy for the linguistically different Muslim  Communities

√ The Two Forms of Linguicism √

a. Establishing a loyal elite who played a major role    in implementing colonial language policies while leaving the masses to suffer illiteracy and ignorance

Colonial authorities decided from the beginning to create a native elite with very strong attachment and loyalty to the colonial administration.

To be among the elite = to transform completely one’s identity and change one’s loyalty.

 The native elites achieve the colonizers’ aims.

Examples: Sierra Leone + India + Liberia + Algeria + Tunisia + Morocco + Indonesia  + Russia

b. Eradicating Arabic and the Arabic script as the medium of literacy for the linguistically different Muslim  Communities

Colonial language planners blamed Arabic for the under development of Muslims!!!

Limiting the number of Islamic schools and closing some were colonial policies.

Colonialists attacked the phenomenon of literacy in Arabic or the use of Arabic script in writing the local languages in the Muslim communities.

Examples: The former Soviet Union + Sierra Leone + Senegal + Nigeria

Conclusion

Allah SWT had said: (And indeed we know that it is only a man who teaches him. But the tongue of him to whom they unjustly incline in making this insinuation is foreign, while this is Arabic tongue, plain and clear) (Al-Nahl, 104).

To conclude this presentation, I promise myself, as an applied linguists and as a Muslim, that I will work hard to promote the Arabic language to be the lingua franca and to spread Islam if Allah wanted.

Sources

The Holy Quran

Alkahtani, A. H. (2002). Linguistic Genocide: Colonial Language Policies towards Arabic and Arabic Script in non-Arabic Speaking Muslim Countries, Journal of the American Society of Geolinguistics, 28.

Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Language Planning and Policy: Recent Trends, Future Directions

A Summary of "Language Planning and Policy: Recent Trends, Future Directions"

Summarized by: Reem Asiri (434820875)

     Language policy and planning (LPP) is defined as planning meant to influence the ways of speaking or literacy practices within a society. It only began to form as a discipline in the late 1960s. A framework by Baldauf (2005) takes a goal orientation to the four activity types (status planning, corpus planning, language-in-education planning, and prestige planning). Awareness of such goals may be overt or covert, and may occur at several different levels. The four possible general developments are levels of language planning, covert language planning, who are the planners and what are their roles?, and planning for compulsory early foreign language learning.

     There are four aspects related to the status planning of second languages (their status for their own communicative purposes, their role as second languages, their role as immigrant or ethnic minority languages, and the degree to which promotion of second language impacts on language rights). Corpus planning is the activity area more dependent on linguistic input for its methodology, but it is shaped by status planning decisions, its output contributes in a major way to language-in-education planning and it may contribute to the prestige that a language has in the community. Language-in-education policy and planning is known as acquisition policy. There are seven key language-in-education policy (access policy, personnel policy, curriculum policy, methodology and materials policy, resourcing policy, community policy, and evaluation policy) and four key language in education planning (language maintenance, language reacquisition, foreign/ second language learning, language shift). Prestige or image planning is not a well developed area. There are three activities that underlie prestige planning (image or prestige seems to be related to ethnic identity and the promotion of a language, image seems to be used to describe a method of implementing and manipulating language policy, image has something to do with motive and the activities of language planners, and the communities they plan for.

     Issues of minority language rights (MLR) are referred to as linguistic human rights. This approach contrasts with the apolitical, ahistorical and technicist paradigm. The research issues are language shift and loss; language ecology; nationalism, minoritization, and historical constructionism; language replacement and social mobility; linguistic human rights; tolerance- and promotion-oriented language rights; and developments in international and national law. However, there are possible futures suggested by Tollefson (2002) like a focus on exploitive LPP contexts, the role of local legal frameworks, linking political theory to LPP, more direct work with sociology, the role of discourse and political leaders, a greater focus on language on social identity and power, a move from a macro focus to micro issues, and a greater focus on language rights for linguistic minorities.  

Factors Influencing Language Planning

IV. Factors Influencing Language Planning

Presented by: Reem Asiri

1. Demographic Distribution

Socio-demographic factors (the number of languages spoken in a country + the demographic distribution of the speakers) have great influence on language planning.

Examples: 1. Tanzania → Swahili

                       2. Kenya → English

                       3. Uganda → English

2. Linguistic Similarities

Linguistic factors like similarities and dissimilarities are important in language planning.

Examples: Swahili (a Bantu language)

                       Malay

                       Javanese

3. Attitudes

Attitudes is a socio-psychological factor. It is concerned with people’s attitudes toward certain linguistic variety. Attitudes are influenced by political, religious, and stereotypical factors.

1.Positive attitudes

2.Negative attitudes: the Dutch, Malay, & Bahasa Indonesia.

4. Politics

Political policies have affected language planning.

The role of politics in determining language policies can be found in many countries, such as the USA and Britain where linguistic minorities are denied.

Examples: French → Algeria + Senegal

                       Arabization → Tunisia

5. Religion

Religion plays an important role in determining identity and cultural loyalty. So, it has a strong influence on language planning.

Examples: Sudan + Algeria + India

                      

My Graduation Project

Turkish Loanwords in Asiri Regional Dialect

Abstract                                                     

The present study investigates the phenomenon of language contact between Arabic and Turkish in Saudi Arabia, particularly in Aseer region. It aims to clarify this linguistic contact and its effects on the vocabulary of Asiri regional dialect. The importance of this study impacts upon rising the awareness of people towards the reasons and nature of borrowing Turkish words in Aseer. The methodology to conduct this study was qualitative. A structured interview was the main tool beside observation. 82 Asiri ladies and gentlemen were selected to conduct the interview with. A sociolinguistic analysis of data revealed many interesting facts about Turkish loanwords. So, the findings showed a strong evidence of the effect of the linguistic contact on the vocabulary of Arabic regional dialect in Aseer, but showed that this effect is going to be decreased. However, the origins of the obtained materials were checked by the researcher through using many dictionaries. Sixty-seven Turkish loanwords that were used or known in Aseer are presented in the study with their Arabic and English meanings. Therefore, it is suggested to analyze these Turkish loanwords linguistically in a further study.

Keywords: Turkish loanwords, Asiri regional dialect, language contact.

Discourse Markers

Discourse Markers

To: Dr. Abdul Hameed Basaed

Presented by: Reem Asiri

2015

Content

Meaning of DMs

Different discourse markers

Features of the sentence connectors

How are paragraphs linked together?

Markers and discourse analysis

References

Meaning of DMs

Fraser Ø “pragmatic class, lexical expressions drawn from the syntactic classes of conjunctions, adverbials, and prepositional phrases.” (1999, p. 950)

Yang Ø right, yeah, well, you know, okay

These are words like ‘however’, ‘although’, ‘nevertheless’ are referred to as ‘linking words' and 'linking phrases’, or ‘sentence connectors’.

They may be described as the ‘glue’ that binds together a piece of writing, making the different parts of the text ‘stick together’.

The different discourse markers

Ø  There are many discourse markers that express different relationships between ideas.

Ø  The types of relationship between ideas, and the sentence connectors that are used to express these relationships, are given in the table below.

The different discourse markers

Features of DMs

1.They are used less frequently in speech, unless the speech is very formal.

2.   They organize the discourse.

 

●

3.   Sentence connectors can be used to begin a new sentence or a new clause that follows a semi-colon. For example: This restaurant has the best kitchen in town; however, their staff are quite rude.

4.   Some sentence connectors can be placed in different positions within the sentence

  a) ‘initial position’ (e.g. Because he is ill, he needs to rest’)

  b) and ‘mid-way position' at the start of another clause (e.g. He must rest, because he is ill).

How are paragraphs linked together?

In much the same way that ideas within a paragraph are linked, a new paragraph must be linked in some way with the previous one. This, too, needs the use of discourse markers.

Here are some different ways in which the opening of a paragraph can link back to what has happened before.

The three basic types of paragraph-paragraph relationship are:

reinforcement of idea;

contrast of ideas;

concession (making an expected contrast).

Indicating these relationships builds a 'bridge' between paragraphs and makes reading the text easier.

How are paragraphs linked together?

Discourse Analysis & Discourse Markers

v

v

vDiscourse analysis is more general than discourse markers.

vDiscourse markers are necessary to analyze a discourse.

References

Schiffrin, D. (1988). Discourse markers (No. 5). Cambridge University Press.‏

Fraser, B. (1999). What are discourse markers? Journal of Pragmatics 31, 931-952.

 Yang, S. (2011). Investigating Discourse Markers in Pedagogical Settings: A Literature Review, Arecls, 8, 95-108.

Monitoring and Assessment

Monitoring and Assessment

KKU

2014

Content:

The purpose of curriculum assessment

Guidelines for Monitoring and Assessment

Types of Monitoring and Assessments

Good Assessment Criteria

Reliability

Validity

Practicality

Conclusion

Summary

References

The purpose

 of curriculum assessment

Cordiner has stated in his book that assessment “refers to all processes employed by academic staff to make judgments about the achievement of students in unit of study and over a course of study.”, (2011, p. 1).

Guidelines for Monitoring and Assessment

-Monitoring and assessment have both informational and effective goals. → Monitoring and assessment can provide a teacher and learners with information about the learners’ present knowledge and progress.

-Look at table 7.1, p. 108.

Types of Monitoring and Assessment

1.Placement assessment: It is used to decide what level of the course a learner should enter, what class the learners should join, and whether the learner should join the course at all. It aims to ensure that the course is not going to be too easy or too difficult for the learner.

2.Observation of learning: It assesses the tasks that the learners do. It aims to see if each activity achieve its goal.

3.Short-term achievement assessment: It looks at the product of activities or a small set of activities. It aims to examine items and skills drawn from the course.

4.Diagnostic assessment: It tries to diagnose or locate areas of need. It aims to to find the gaps and weaknesses in learners’ knowledge and provide a remedy for them.

5.Achievement assessment: It measures both the achievement of learners during a course and the effectiveness of the course. It aims to examine the effectiveness of the course.

6.Proficiency assessment: A test of language proficiency draws items for the test from the language itself. It aims to see where learners have reached in their knowledge of language.

Good Assessment

- All assessment needs to be checked to see that it is doing its job properly.

- The process of assessment can be examined by considering 3 criteria:

  √ reliability

  √ validity

  √ practicality

- These 3 criteria will be discussed in relation to tests although they can be applied to other instruments.

Reliability

- A reliable test gives results that are not upset by conditions of the test.

- Statistically, reliability is measured by having the learners sit the test twice, or more, by dividing the scores into 2 equal groups and seeing if the scores are equal.

- A test is more reliable if:

 (1) it is given under the same conditions,

 (2) it is marked,

 (3) it has a large number of assessment points, and

 (4) its questions are clear.

- The test’s conditions include the amount of time allowed for the test.

- If something is wrong with one or two of a test questions or points, this will not influence the results.

-An unreliable test cannot be valid. 

Validity

- “Measurement validity refers to the meaningfulness and appropriateness of the interpretation of the various test scores or other assessment procedure outcomes.”, (Dornyei, 2011, p. 50).

- There are 2 practical ways to check the validity of a test:

-(1) Face validity: if the test is called a reading test, does it look like a reading test? It is important because it reflects how learners, their parents, and teachers will react to the test.

 (2) Content validity: to look at the part of the course that was being tested and list the items and skills tested.

The decision making about face validity is made by looking at the test’s face. But with the content validity, the decision making is made by analyzing the test and comparing it to what it is supposed to test.

- An obstacle of content validity: Finding some well-supported description of what the language skills and the language knowledge involve.

- Another way of measuring validity is statistical comparison with other measures.

3. Practicality

- Practicality is examined by looking at:

 (1) the cost,

 (2) the time taken to administer the test,

 (3) the time taken to mark the test,

 (4) the number of people, and

 (5) the ease in interpreting and applying the results.

- Tests can be made more practical by having reusable test papers, by being carefully formatted for easy marking, by being short, and by using objectively scored items.

Summary

The steps of assessment:

1.Decide  what kinds of assessment are needed and when they are needed.

2.Write the tests.

3.Check the reliability, validity and practicality of the tests.

Conclusion

- Assessment is a major source of information for the evaluation of a course and its improvement.

-

- Assessment is important for motivation because it gives teachers and learners the sense of achievement in a course.

- It is often neglected in curriculum design.

References

Cordiner, M. (2011). Guidelines for Good Assessment Practice. Australia: University of Tasmania.

Macalister, J. (2010). Language Curriculum Design. New York: Routledge.

Dornyel, Z. (2011). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press.  

Hope you enjoy ☺