Papers by Dr. Khawlah Ahmed
Springer eBooks, Dec 7, 2014
Effective intercultural communication is highly valued in political, professional, and academic c... more Effective intercultural communication is highly valued in political, professional, and academic contexts. Universities even offer courses focused on the cultural dimensions of interpersonal communication. Despite the multicultural, globalized world we live in, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding and lack of cultural/intercultural communication in many societies which has caused a great deal of conflict on individual and societal levels. Nowhere can this misunderstanding and lack of intercultural communication skills have a more powerful impact and serious negative repercussions than on students. In many school contexts around the world, this issue is still not being addressed on the administrative or curriculum levels. In the USA some teachers and administrators, and even curricula are insensitive to many of the cultural differences that exist in today’s classrooms despite the introduction of multicultural education. This chapter examines the effects of the lack of understanding and ineffective intercultural communication of teachers and administrations toward Muslim American students in US school contexts. There are gaps and shortcomings in the academic system that need to be recognized and examined to prevent a cultural divide that already exists in the larger social context created by politics and the media. Teachers and academic leaders are the most important factors that governments and agencies should be focusing on when it comes to building cultural understanding and effective communication between cultures.
The importance of language has been a source for many discussions on the academic as well as poli... more The importance of language has been a source for many discussions on the academic as well as political levels. Its different functions have caused scholars in the field to go beyond looking at it from the traditionally concentrated on linguistic oriented approaches. And though we realize that we remain very concerned with accurate representation in terms of the forms and structures used in a language, as Yule (1996) explains, we need to know what it is used for and its interpretations and intent. Language realizes discursive and ideological systems which are used as powerful tools to exercise power in modern democratic societies (Kress, 1990) and language in literary texts has been shown to have the power to socialize, acculturate, and influence perceptions and reality (Holmes, 2001). This paper examines literature as a 'discourse type' (Cook, 1994) whose language use must not just be interpreted on the linguistic level, but must be interpreted, as Duranti (2005) explains, as the use of the linguistic code(s) in the conduct of social life. If we consider a literary text as Holmes (2005; 2001) does, as a representation of a language which is social-semiotic and representative of a culture or society, in which all aspects of that society are deemed as a system of signs, where culture and conventions are culture bound, then literary texts are laden with cultural aspects which need to be considered in the literature classroom. And, any approach used to deal with such texts in literature courses, especially ESL/EFL contexts, should include the analysis of discourse.
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Jul 9, 2022
The goal of inclusive language is to replace terms and phrases that may cause offense or denigrat... more The goal of inclusive language is to replace terms and phrases that may cause offense or denigrate a particular group of people. One of the major issues stymieing a broader application of inclusive language is simply awareness, especially for those who speak English as an additional language. Given that few places focus on wording issues more than the writing classroom, it is surely there that instruction and its associated Automated Writing Evaluation tools need to make appropriate contributions. Accordingly, this paper assesses faculty, student, and technology for their respective current levels of awareness. The results of our study suggest that both faculty and students appear to be inconsistent and lacking in awareness on many issues of inclusive language. Meanwhile, our analysis suggests technology appears to have many opportunities to both improve and increase its role in assisting with a greater understanding and application of inclusive language.
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2017
Ahmed examines the issue of schooling Muslim students in the USA and Europe, and how and why the ... more Ahmed examines the issue of schooling Muslim students in the USA and Europe, and how and why the counterparts of these new ‘challenges’, ‘suspects’, ‘problems’, a few decades ago, were seen as some of the top achievers whose numbers ranked among the highest percentages of university candidates, competing in the fields of medicine, engineering, and the sciences; their communities, some of the most law abiding, productive and successful in society. The chapter draws attention to the idea that today’s governments and academic institutions may seem confused and are at a loss as to how to deal with this new ‘enemy within’, yet they fail to recognize that these may be the by-products of the past decade of political rhetoric that has alienated these students, if not directly through the school systems and the ‘neoliberal pedagogy’, but through the political rhetoric that has deemed their communities as threats and enemies to societies-venomous rhetoric which has trickled into the classroom.
Accountability in Research, Jul 25, 2019
There seems to be an awakening in Asia and the Middle East (ME) region in the fields of research ... more There seems to be an awakening in Asia and the Middle East (ME) region in the fields of research and publication. In these regions, scholarship and research have not been keeping up with the technologically developed Western world. In response to this realization, governments are heavily investing in academia and rapid academic expansion and reforms are being made to gain a foothold in the academic and research arena. This has led academicians to clamber to publish, which, in turn, has led to issues of academic integrity and intellectual property. It is with this development in mind that the current paper examines the issue of academic integrity in Asia and the Middle East, presenting the challenges being confronted, and suggesting strategies that can be implemented.
Higher Learning Research Communications, Apr 25, 2018
Objective: In varying degrees of severity and seriousness, evidence of academic dishonesty exists... more Objective: In varying degrees of severity and seriousness, evidence of academic dishonesty exists in tertiary institutions around the world. This paper examines academic misconduct in a tertiary-level institution in one of the Gulf countries to see if academic dishonesty prevails, and if so, how and why it happens. Method: To gauge students' perceptions about academic dishonesty in this context, a survey was distributed to 111 junior, sophomore, and senior level students taking an advanced academic writing course in a private university. Results: Results show statistically significant evidence that cheating exists. Conclusions: While research on academic misconduct is extensive in Western contexts, less is documented in the Middle East and North Africa region besides conceptual papers that aim to create a general understanding of this issue and newspaper articles that discuss its prevalence. Implications for Theory and/or Practice: This paper underscores the existence of academic misconduct in the Middle East and North Africa region, identifying the need for further research and implementation of improved teaching strategies and increased attention regarding academic misconduct.
DergiPark (Istanbul University), Dec 31, 2020
This paper investigates the perceptions of students studying at a university in the Middle East r... more This paper investigates the perceptions of students studying at a university in the Middle East regarding the characteristics of an effective university instructor. Anonymous survey data from 1,557 students from both graduate and undergraduate programs were collected. A discussion of the characteristics of an effective instructor, as outlined in the literature and review of some of the current views on teaching and learning in tertiary institutions, is followed by an analysis of the data collected to answer the research question, "What, according to the participating students, are the characteristics of an effective instructor?" The results reveal that an effective instructor is one who is not only an expert in their field of study but also one who is aware of teaching methods and the expectations of their students. In all, this study contributes to increasing the amount of empirical research on students' perceptions from this part of the world and provides information that may prove beneficial to those involved in education in this region. It concludes with recommendations for further research. One of these is, had this study been conducted during the present Coronavirus pandemic, would technical knowledge of online teaching have surfaced as an effective teacher requirement?
International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education, Sep 1, 2010
In the past few decades in the Arab World, Arabic became sidelined and deemed as 'non-useful,' an... more In the past few decades in the Arab World, Arabic became sidelined and deemed as 'non-useful,' and in the West it became a language associated with terrorism. But after decades of taking a back seat to dominant languages such as English, research shows that the Arabic language today is seemingly on the rebound.
International journal for e-learning security, Mar 30, 2019
In today's technology driven societies, academic institutions, especially at the tertiary level, ... more In today's technology driven societies, academic institutions, especially at the tertiary level, are incorporating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), utilizing learning management systems (LMS) and adopting blended learning approaches to improve student performance and enhance student learning. Currently a good deal of research is conducted to assess the effectiveness of such techniques and technologies on student learning and performance. A great deal of this research deals with LMS's, e-learning platforms, such as Blackboard, but not much is being conducted on LMS's provided by publishing companies, like McGraw Hill Education, whose course management systems are available for a range of courses and being used throughout the world. This paper examines the effectiveness of McGraw Hill Education's Connect on improving student grades in a pre-calculus course at a university in a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country. Using simple and multiple linear regression analysis to investigate whether there was a relationship between the Connect online assignments' grades and the total course grade of students in the course, and two independent sample t-tests to compare the grades between two pre-calculus courses (one taught using the Connect component, and the other taught in the traditional format) results show that using Connect has positive impact on student grades.
Multilingual Global Cities, 2020
Rapid changes are happening at all levels in the modern Arab Gulf societies. One of the fields wh... more Rapid changes are happening at all levels in the modern Arab Gulf societies. One of the fields where these changes matter most is education. Governments are trying to restructure their educational policies to respond to technological, economic and social changes without disrupting or clashing with firmly held beliefs, ideas and traditions. But the dramatic changes in these countries are bound to be accompanied by many challenges. In the field of education, one of the important issues posing a challenge is mandating the use of English as the medium of instruction in many academic institutions. This paper looks at the spread of English in these areas, its current position and the accompanying challenges. English in the Arab Gulf Rapid changes are occurring on a worldwide basis on every level in modern societies. Of these changes, those in the field of education matter most. Education is a key component for national success but it is getting more difficult due to constant changes not o...
The International Journal of Management Education
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal
The goal of inclusive language is to replace terms and phrases that may cause offense or denigrat... more The goal of inclusive language is to replace terms and phrases that may cause offense or denigrate a particular group of people. One of the major issues stymieing a broader application of inclusive language is simply awareness, especially for those who speak English as an additional language. Given that few places focus on wording issues more than the writing classroom, it is surely there that instruction and its associated Automated Writing Evaluation tools need to make appropriate contributions. Accordingly, this paper assesses faculty, student, and technology for their respective current levels of awareness. The results of our study suggest that both faculty and students appear to be inconsistent and lacking in awareness on many issues of inclusive language. Meanwhile, our analysis suggests technology appears to have many opportunities to both improve and increase its role in assisting with a greater understanding and application of inclusive language.
The mission of the journal is to create a communication platform for foreign language teachers wi... more The mission of the journal is to create a communication platform for foreign language teachers with academic activity in non-philological fields and it aims to facilitate exchange of experience and ideas. Given the specificity of their intermediate status, between philology and various fields of specialty, these teachers – researchers at the same time – need their own forum to give expression to the aforementioned dichotomy and pluralism. It is this role that the journal wants to assume, offering its contributors help in their didactic activity through exchange of experience between academics and at the same time providing them new perspectives and prestige regarding the research work they undertake.
English Language Teaching, 2021
Incorporating counterarguments can be challenging for many student-writers, including those for w... more Incorporating counterarguments can be challenging for many student-writers, including those for whom English is a second or other language. In this study, we present findings that may lead to improvements in students’ understanding of the benefits of integrating counterarguments. In our study, expert readers were presented with excerpts of student academic writing in order to assess the degree to which counterarguments could be identified through student deployment of metadiscoursal features. The results suggest that student-writers deploy metadiscoursal features with insufficient frequency and consistency. The results further suggest that when metadiscoursal features are used in counterarguments, their deployment is largely restricted to the sentence-initial position. The study also considers the pedagogical and technological issues associated with the findings.
Higher Learning Research Communications, 2018
Objective: In varying degrees of severity and seriousness, evidence of academic dishonesty exists... more Objective: In varying degrees of severity and seriousness, evidence of academic dishonesty exists in tertiary institutions around the world. This paper examines academic misconduct in a tertiary-level institution in one of the Gulf countries to see if academic dishonesty prevails, and if so, how and why it happens. Method: To gauge students’ perceptions about academic dishonesty in this context, a survey was distributed to 111 junior, sophomore, and senior level students taking an advanced academic writing course in a private university. Results: Results show statistically significant evidence that cheating exists. Conclusions: While research on academic misconduct is extensive in Western contexts, less is documented in the Middle East and North Africa region besides conceptual papers that aim to create a general understanding of this issue and newspaper articles that discuss its prevalence. Implications for Theory and/or Practice: This paper underscores the existence of academic mi...
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Papers by Dr. Khawlah Ahmed