Production of Arabic Geminates by English Speakers.

This study investigates the production of Arabic intervocalic geminate obstruents as produced by American L2 learners of Arabic. The participants of the study were 24 Arabic learners (12 advanced, 12 beginners) at North Georgia University and 12 native speakers of Jordanian Arabic (the control group). An examination of the results reveals that native speakers of Arabic and advanced Arabic learners pattern similarly while the beginner Arabic learners show a different pattern. Native speakers as well as advanced L2 learners of Arabic maintain a contrast between geminate and singleton consonants in terms of consonant duration while beginner L2 leaners do not. Unlike the case of the beginner L2 learners, the duration of the preceding vowel is found to be shorter before a geminate in native speakers and advanced L2 learners. However, the duration of vowels following a geminate is not affected across all proficiency levels. Further, the results suggest that the place and manner of articulation have no effect on the production of geminate consonants for both native and advanced L2 learners. Finally, voicing of geminates is found to have a significant effect on the duration of geminates, in favor of voiceless geminates, among native speakers and beginner L2 learners.

E-learning in a Jordanian higher education institution.

This study seeks to understand the current level of e-learning and to investigate the challenges to the successful implementation of e-learning at a major Jordanian higher education institution from the perspectives of faculty members. Analyses of emailed survey data from 157 faculty members showed that the level of faculty knowledge of e-learning was good (M = 3.049) on the 4-point Likert scale. The usage of e-learning by the faculty members was often (M = 3.640) on the 5-point Likert scale. Ratings of the policy and support barriers indicated that Yarmouk University faculty members benefit from the technical support that their departments offer to implement e-learning, but the overall responses to the policy and support barriers were undecided (M = 3.567). Also, overall Yarmouk University faculty members' responses to the infrastructure and resources barriers were undecided (3.482). Attitude item responses showed that Yarmouk University faculty members have positive attitudes and a willingness to implement e-learning in their teaching (M = 3.913). Also, responses showed a degree of satisfaction of faculty members with the development plans and strategies associated with e-learning (M = 3.668). They showed that they did not have obstacles in preparation and development and that they benefited from their plans and strategies. The results showed that there were no differences between males and females on e-learning knowledge, usage, and barriers.

Arabic emphatic consonants as produced by English speakers: An acoustic study.

This study examines the production of emphatic consonants as produced by American L2 learners of Arabic. To this end, 19 participants, 5 native speakers and 14 L2 learners, participated in a production experiment in which they produced monosyllabic CVC pairs that were contrasted in terms of whether the initial consonant was plain or emphatic. The acoustic parameters that were investigated are VOT of voiceless stops, COG of fricatives, and the first three formant frequencies of the target vowels. The results of the native speakers showed that VOT is a reliable acoustic correlate of emphasis in MSA. The results also showed that vowels in the emphatic context have higher F1 and F3 and lower F2. The results showed that the L2 learners produced comparable VOT values to those of native Arabic speakers. Further, L2 learners produced a significantly lower F2 of the vowels in the emphatic context than that in the plain context. Proficiency in Arabic played a role on the F2 measure; the intermediate learners tended to be more native-like than the beginning learners. As for F3, the results of the L2 learners unexpectedly showed that the beginning learners produced a higher F3 in the context of fricatives only. This suggests that the relationship between emphasis and proficiency depends on whether the preceding consonant is a stop or fricative.

Engagement strategies in English and Arabic newspaper editorials.

This study explores the use and functions of engagement strategies in English and Arabic newspaper editorials. To this end, the study analyses 80 editorials collected from two popular newspapers (40 from each): The Guardian which publishes in English and appears in the UK and Addustour which publishes in Arabic and appears in Jordan. Following Paltridge's (2020) taxonomy, the study utilises a mixed-method approach to assess whether differences in the use of engagement strategies between the two corpora are statistically significant and to identify the functions of the strategies used in the two sets of data. The findings show that there are statistically significant differences between the two languages in the use of some engagement strategies. In particular, Arabic editorials included more reader pronouns and less personal asides than did English ones. In addition, although questioning as an engagement strategy was absent in the Arabic corpus, it was used in the English one to transmit information and circulate knowledge. The findings enrich our understanding of how the editorial genre is constructed, and how editorialists engage with their readers in the two languages.

Emphatic variation of the labio-velar /w/ in two Jordanian Arabic dialects.

Much work on emphatic segments in Arabic dialects has focused on primary emphasis. However, secondary emphasis has been less of a target of study. Our research investigates the emphatic variation of the secondarily emphatic labio-velar /w/ between males and females in two Jordanian Arabic sub-dialects: Rural Jordanian Arabic and Urban Jordanian Arabic. Twenty-four native speakers from the two dialects (equally stratified according to their gender and dialect) were asked to read a carrier phrase that included fifteen tri-syllabic words having the sound /w/ in medial position. Our research confirmed that there is a variation in the degree of emphasis based on gender and dialect. More particularly, males produced stronger emphatic segments than females did, and Urban speakers produced weaker empathic segments than Rural speakers did. Results also revealed that the secondarily emphatic /w/ caused the neighboring vowels to have lowered F2 and raised F1 and F3. These findings suggest that emphasis, whether primary or secondary, tend to have the same acoustic correlates. In closing, the theoretical implications of these finding are discussed.