Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Nov 30, 2023
The present study aims at examining the semiotic modes used in the rubrics for girls and the topi... more The present study aims at examining the semiotic modes used in the rubrics for girls and the topics they reflect in Arab children's magazines. To this end, eight girls' sections were extracted from two Arab children's magazines, namely Majid (active) and Hatem (non-active). We adopted Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar in our data analysis. We focused on representational, interactive, and compositional metafunctions. The results show that although both publications used a variety of semiotic modes to express meaning, there are some differences between them. That is, Majid is richer than Hatem in terms of layout, the use of pictures, and vibrant colors. The findings also indicate that the two periodicals discuss similar topics, mainly recipes, fashion, and etiquette, but they vary in the attention given to each topic. While Majid concentrates on fashion and beauty, Hatem places much more focus on recipes and handcrafts. These results suggest that the variations in focus on specific topics could be related to the socioeconomic contexts in which the two magazines are published.
The present study set out to examine the translations of Edward Said’s Orientalism in light of na... more The present study set out to examine the translations of Edward Said’s Orientalism in light of narrative theory. The paper uses critical discourse analysis to examine the different narratives produced by two different Arabic translations of Orientalism, written originally in English. The first translation was produced by Kamal Abu Deeb in 1980, and a later one was carried out by Mohammad Enani in 2006. Our findings demonstrate two competing narratives of two cultures standing in opposition to one another, with each translation implying that one of these civilizations is unique and inherently competitive with “the other” culture.
The current study examines gender stereotypes in TV commercials through the lens of multimodality... more The current study examines gender stereotypes in TV commercials through the lens of multimodality. It adopts Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar to decipher the visual resources that form gendered depictions in Algerian TV advertising discourse. To achieve this aim, five TV ads broadcasted on public and private Algerian TV channels were selected and downloaded from YouTube, then they were analyzed in terms of the representational metafunction, the interactive metafunction, and the compositional metafunction. Results show that Algerian TV commercials are loaded with offensive depictions for both genders. They also indicate that different multimodal resources are involved in the construction of these gendered portrayals. The study concludes with some recommendations for ad designers and TV producers.
This study examines digital fashion advertising discourse on social media from a multimodal persp... more This study examines digital fashion advertising discourse on social media from a multimodal perspective. The focus is on Facebook clothing posts published by 'H&M' and the effect of gender on determining the semiotic modes used in such advertisements. The data consists of 8 clothing posts for the two genders published by the company on Facebook during (2020-2022). The data were analyzed using Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) Visual Grammar paradigm to explore the role of gender in the choice of visual modes employed in these posts. The findings show that digital fashion clothing ads widely involve visual semiotic modes as a tool that creates meaning and enables interaction with the target audiences. The results also indicate that gender is a primary factor in the selection of such visual semiotic resources. In particular, the construction of visual meaning, especially representational and interactive meanings, is different from that in male ads.
International Journal of Arabic-English Studies, 2010
This study deals with the etymological information provided on Arabic loanwords in English by dif... more This study deals with the etymological information provided on Arabic loanwords in English by different kinds of dictionaries; monolingual, bilingual and bilingualized. It also reports on EFL learners' attitudes towards the relative importance of such information for understanding the meaning of these words. The participants were 200 undergraduate students majoring in Applied English at the University of Jordan and the data were collected through writing tasks, a questionnaire and structured interviews. The results showed that both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries vary in giving the word origin in its entry but bilingualized dictionaries do not provide any information in this regard. The findings indicated that most EFL students believe that the etymology of English words derived from Arabic can be very helpful in understanding their meaning. Based on these results, recommendations were made for improving the content of various dictionaries, and for integrating word origin in EFL vocabulary instruction.
This paper deals with the treatment of word etymology in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. ... more This paper deals with the treatment of word etymology in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. It also investigates EFL learners' attitudes towards the importance of etymology for understanding the meaning of the words they look up in dictionaries. The data were collected through tasks of looking up Arabic loan words in English in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The results indicate that most monolingual and bilingual dictionaries do not provide information on word etymology. They also show that most Arab EFL learners find etymology helpful in understanding the meaning of English words of Arabic origin.
This paper investigates mixing Arabic and English in science lectures. The phenomenon is examined... more This paper investigates mixing Arabic and English in science lectures. The phenomenon is examined mainly with reference to frequency, grammatical categories involved, and adzquacy of the syntactic constraints proposed in the literature for providing a structural description of this practice. The results show that the alternate use of the two languages in teaching is a prominent feature of the lectures and occurs in different grammatical categories to various degrees. However, the conditioning factors suggested in the literature are inappropriate for a grammatical characterization of code-mixing. So, it is suggested that further research should examine the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors involved if a satisfactory description of such mixing is to be provided.
224 Heading in a Foreign Language, 11(2), 1998 225 Reading for Science and Technology in a Foreig... more 224 Heading in a Foreign Language, 11(2), 1998 225 Reading for Science and Technology in a Foreign Language: Students' Evaluation of Formal Instruction on Reading Strategies ZahraMustafa English Language Unit, University of Science and Technology, Irbid-Jordan. ...
The development of medical care in Jordan has necessitated more dependence on English both as a l... more The development of medical care in Jordan has necessitated more dependence on English both as a language of instruction in medical and allied health profession on one hand and as a language of communication in private and public medical facilities in the country on the other hand. The case of English language use in the area of medicine in Jordan typifies that in other Arab counties and many developing countries in the world. This paper reports the findings of a country wide field study investigating the following dimensions of the use of English in nursing education, training and practice. 1) A survey of nursing preparation programs and the role of English in instruction in nursing education and trainiing. 2) An examination of the English curricula as to their focus on both general English and special English and to their response to the actual needs of the learner. 3) The extent of English language use on and off the job and the specific requirements of skills in English. 4) The s...
This paper deals with the treatment of word etymology in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. ... more This paper deals with the treatment of word etymology in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. It also investigates EFL learners' attitudes towards the importance of etymology for understanding the meaning of the words they look up in dictionaries. The data were collected through tasks of looking up Arabic loan words in English in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The results indicate that most monolingual and bilingual dictionaries do not provide information on word etymology. They also show that most Arab EFL learners find etymology helpful in understanding the meaning of English words of Arabic origin.
This study explores the views of Jordanian high school students on using computers in the English... more This study explores the views of Jordanian high school students on using computers in the English classroom. It focuses on the effect of age and gender on their attitudes towards this technology. The data were collected from 10 public high schools through questionnaires and structured interviews. The results show that the participants tend to have positive perception of the computer use for general purposes and for learning English but with various degrees depending on their age and gender. The older learners seem to be more interested in the general applications of the computer while the younger ones tend to be more excited about its implementation in English lessons. On the other hand, gender appears to have slight influence on their responses to the computer use in the two domains. These results have implications for decision makers in foreign language education.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors involved in applying multimedia in teaching E... more The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors involved in applying multimedia in teaching English as a foreign language. In particular, it deals with the non-courseware factors affecting the use of multimedia in improving the pronunciation and the oral communication skills of students majoring in English for Specific Purposes at Jordan University of Science and Technology. The factors under investigation are the following: previous instruction on pronunciation using the conventional classroom teaching method, familiarity with multimedia, English proficiency, academic achievement, free time using multimedia, attitude towards using multimedia, and socio-economic class. The results show that there are variations in the effect of these factors on using multimedia as a teaching aid in improving the oral skills in a foreign language.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Nov 30, 2023
The present study aims at examining the semiotic modes used in the rubrics for girls and the topi... more The present study aims at examining the semiotic modes used in the rubrics for girls and the topics they reflect in Arab children's magazines. To this end, eight girls' sections were extracted from two Arab children's magazines, namely Majid (active) and Hatem (non-active). We adopted Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar in our data analysis. We focused on representational, interactive, and compositional metafunctions. The results show that although both publications used a variety of semiotic modes to express meaning, there are some differences between them. That is, Majid is richer than Hatem in terms of layout, the use of pictures, and vibrant colors. The findings also indicate that the two periodicals discuss similar topics, mainly recipes, fashion, and etiquette, but they vary in the attention given to each topic. While Majid concentrates on fashion and beauty, Hatem places much more focus on recipes and handcrafts. These results suggest that the variations in focus on specific topics could be related to the socioeconomic contexts in which the two magazines are published.
The present study set out to examine the translations of Edward Said’s Orientalism in light of na... more The present study set out to examine the translations of Edward Said’s Orientalism in light of narrative theory. The paper uses critical discourse analysis to examine the different narratives produced by two different Arabic translations of Orientalism, written originally in English. The first translation was produced by Kamal Abu Deeb in 1980, and a later one was carried out by Mohammad Enani in 2006. Our findings demonstrate two competing narratives of two cultures standing in opposition to one another, with each translation implying that one of these civilizations is unique and inherently competitive with “the other” culture.
The current study examines gender stereotypes in TV commercials through the lens of multimodality... more The current study examines gender stereotypes in TV commercials through the lens of multimodality. It adopts Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar to decipher the visual resources that form gendered depictions in Algerian TV advertising discourse. To achieve this aim, five TV ads broadcasted on public and private Algerian TV channels were selected and downloaded from YouTube, then they were analyzed in terms of the representational metafunction, the interactive metafunction, and the compositional metafunction. Results show that Algerian TV commercials are loaded with offensive depictions for both genders. They also indicate that different multimodal resources are involved in the construction of these gendered portrayals. The study concludes with some recommendations for ad designers and TV producers.
This study examines digital fashion advertising discourse on social media from a multimodal persp... more This study examines digital fashion advertising discourse on social media from a multimodal perspective. The focus is on Facebook clothing posts published by 'H&M' and the effect of gender on determining the semiotic modes used in such advertisements. The data consists of 8 clothing posts for the two genders published by the company on Facebook during (2020-2022). The data were analyzed using Kress and Van Leeuwen's (2006) Visual Grammar paradigm to explore the role of gender in the choice of visual modes employed in these posts. The findings show that digital fashion clothing ads widely involve visual semiotic modes as a tool that creates meaning and enables interaction with the target audiences. The results also indicate that gender is a primary factor in the selection of such visual semiotic resources. In particular, the construction of visual meaning, especially representational and interactive meanings, is different from that in male ads.
International Journal of Arabic-English Studies, 2010
This study deals with the etymological information provided on Arabic loanwords in English by dif... more This study deals with the etymological information provided on Arabic loanwords in English by different kinds of dictionaries; monolingual, bilingual and bilingualized. It also reports on EFL learners' attitudes towards the relative importance of such information for understanding the meaning of these words. The participants were 200 undergraduate students majoring in Applied English at the University of Jordan and the data were collected through writing tasks, a questionnaire and structured interviews. The results showed that both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries vary in giving the word origin in its entry but bilingualized dictionaries do not provide any information in this regard. The findings indicated that most EFL students believe that the etymology of English words derived from Arabic can be very helpful in understanding their meaning. Based on these results, recommendations were made for improving the content of various dictionaries, and for integrating word origin in EFL vocabulary instruction.
This paper deals with the treatment of word etymology in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. ... more This paper deals with the treatment of word etymology in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. It also investigates EFL learners' attitudes towards the importance of etymology for understanding the meaning of the words they look up in dictionaries. The data were collected through tasks of looking up Arabic loan words in English in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The results indicate that most monolingual and bilingual dictionaries do not provide information on word etymology. They also show that most Arab EFL learners find etymology helpful in understanding the meaning of English words of Arabic origin.
This paper investigates mixing Arabic and English in science lectures. The phenomenon is examined... more This paper investigates mixing Arabic and English in science lectures. The phenomenon is examined mainly with reference to frequency, grammatical categories involved, and adzquacy of the syntactic constraints proposed in the literature for providing a structural description of this practice. The results show that the alternate use of the two languages in teaching is a prominent feature of the lectures and occurs in different grammatical categories to various degrees. However, the conditioning factors suggested in the literature are inappropriate for a grammatical characterization of code-mixing. So, it is suggested that further research should examine the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors involved if a satisfactory description of such mixing is to be provided.
224 Heading in a Foreign Language, 11(2), 1998 225 Reading for Science and Technology in a Foreig... more 224 Heading in a Foreign Language, 11(2), 1998 225 Reading for Science and Technology in a Foreign Language: Students' Evaluation of Formal Instruction on Reading Strategies ZahraMustafa English Language Unit, University of Science and Technology, Irbid-Jordan. ...
The development of medical care in Jordan has necessitated more dependence on English both as a l... more The development of medical care in Jordan has necessitated more dependence on English both as a language of instruction in medical and allied health profession on one hand and as a language of communication in private and public medical facilities in the country on the other hand. The case of English language use in the area of medicine in Jordan typifies that in other Arab counties and many developing countries in the world. This paper reports the findings of a country wide field study investigating the following dimensions of the use of English in nursing education, training and practice. 1) A survey of nursing preparation programs and the role of English in instruction in nursing education and trainiing. 2) An examination of the English curricula as to their focus on both general English and special English and to their response to the actual needs of the learner. 3) The extent of English language use on and off the job and the specific requirements of skills in English. 4) The s...
This paper deals with the treatment of word etymology in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. ... more This paper deals with the treatment of word etymology in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. It also investigates EFL learners' attitudes towards the importance of etymology for understanding the meaning of the words they look up in dictionaries. The data were collected through tasks of looking up Arabic loan words in English in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The results indicate that most monolingual and bilingual dictionaries do not provide information on word etymology. They also show that most Arab EFL learners find etymology helpful in understanding the meaning of English words of Arabic origin.
This study explores the views of Jordanian high school students on using computers in the English... more This study explores the views of Jordanian high school students on using computers in the English classroom. It focuses on the effect of age and gender on their attitudes towards this technology. The data were collected from 10 public high schools through questionnaires and structured interviews. The results show that the participants tend to have positive perception of the computer use for general purposes and for learning English but with various degrees depending on their age and gender. The older learners seem to be more interested in the general applications of the computer while the younger ones tend to be more excited about its implementation in English lessons. On the other hand, gender appears to have slight influence on their responses to the computer use in the two domains. These results have implications for decision makers in foreign language education.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors involved in applying multimedia in teaching E... more The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors involved in applying multimedia in teaching English as a foreign language. In particular, it deals with the non-courseware factors affecting the use of multimedia in improving the pronunciation and the oral communication skills of students majoring in English for Specific Purposes at Jordan University of Science and Technology. The factors under investigation are the following: previous instruction on pronunciation using the conventional classroom teaching method, familiarity with multimedia, English proficiency, academic achievement, free time using multimedia, attitude towards using multimedia, and socio-economic class. The results show that there are variations in the effect of these factors on using multimedia as a teaching aid in improving the oral skills in a foreign language.
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