Department of Curriculum and Instruction

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the translation industry in Saudi Arabia in order to identify the professional contexts for which universities should be preparing translators. Following a review of the current state of the industry, the article examines the types of translation organizations found in the country and investigates the demands of today’s translation market in Saudi Arabia. The most striking finding was that there is a huge gap between academic training and the requirements of the Saudi translation market. This study provides new beneficial insights for improving university translator-training programmes. It is suggested that the training programmes need to be constructed specifically to meet the demands of the Saudi translation market.

The purpose of the current descriptive analytic study was to explore the availability and use of technology and learning resources in translation programmes at Saudi universities. The sample of the current study was comprised of 200 translation students selected randomly from Saudi universities. The two research instruments for data collection both consisted of a 3-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed quantitatively and the results revealed that most participating students perceived a lack of translation labs, machine translation, translation software, printed media, audio and visual materials in universities. In addition, the findings showed a deficit in the utilization and adaption of technology and learning resources in translation programmes. This study suggests that Saudi universities not only need to acquire technologies and learning resources, but should also recruit motivating instructors who can use these tools in translation instruction.

Lexical items constitute paramount problems in the translation of Quran from Arabic into English. This study deals with only one the semantic problematic areas in Surah AL-An’am (The cutle) in the Quran, namely ambiguity. It explores the translation of Qur’anic ambiguity. The current study focuses on the issue of translating ambiguous word in the Quran, particularly in the Surah AL-An’am. It attempts to analyse and compare six different approaches to to retaining the meaning of the Quran while translating it into English. The translators are Pichthall (1930), Ali (1942), Asad (1980), Khattib (1986), Malik (1997) and Al-Hilali/Khan (1417). Their translations of the Quran have been reprinted worldwide. However, the study does not attempt to evaluate the six translations but rather to investigate the types of lexical problem that they encounter based on the Quran exegesis of Ibn-Kathir and Al-Tabariari, Al-Jalâlin and Al-Qurtabi. The findings of the study provide empirical evidence tha...

This study aims to investigate the link between the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model (UTAUT) and the acceptance and use of Blackboard (BB) among English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors. The UTAUT model was employed to determine the strength of predictors for EFL instructors’ willingness to use BB for educational purposes. A questionnaire was administered to 80 EFL instructors at Taibah University. The results indicated that performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), and facilitating conditions (FC) positively and directly correlated with behavioral intention (BI) to adopt and use BB in language classes. However, this study did not find a significant association between social influence (SI) and BI. Keywords: Blackboard, EFL classes, Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, online language learning

The purpose of this study is to explore the techniques used by teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in teaching the four language skills to students in large classes in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. This study also seeks to determine the most effective technique to teaching large classes by examining teachers’ experiences. Additionally, this study investigates the teachers’ use of language techniques for language classes with respect to gender, qualification, years of experience, and level of teaching. The subjects of the study were 307 EFL teachers from Saudi schools. This study used descriptive statistical methods to examine the teachers’ preferred techniques in teaching the four central English skills in a large class setting. The results show that EFL teachers use a variety of language techniques in teaching graphic skills rather than aural ones. Further, gender and level of teaching shape their preferences for using certain techniques when teaching language skills in large ...

This study is aimed at analysing the effectiveness of speaking practice exercises, as it is one of the most crucial and learning-oriented aspects in the language education field. The English as a foreign language (EFL) Saudi sector was selected for this study, and all of the respondents were willing to provide their viewpoints in response to the questionnaires provided to them. The entire study was based on considering and acting upon the importance of speaking activities inside and outside the classroom. Results have shown that there are issues and needs associated with speaking activities: speaking tasks and speaking materials.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the translation industry in Saudi Arabia in order to identify the professional contexts for which universities should be preparing translators. Following a review of the current state of the industry, the article examines the types of translation organizations found in the country and investigates the demands of today's translation market in Saudi Arabia. The most striking finding was that there is a huge gap between academic training and the requirements of the Saudi translation market. This study provides new beneficial insights for improving university translator-training programmes. It is suggested that the training programmes need to be constructed specifically to meet the demands of the Saudi translation market.

This simulation employed a compiler which explains the role of central limit theorem in dealing with populations that are not normally distributed. A group of 10000-data-point populations were simulated according to five different kinds of distribution: uniform, platykurtic normal, positively-skewed exponential, negatively-skewed triangular, and bimodal. Three 500-data-point sampling distributions of sample sizes of 2, 10, and 30 were created from each population. All populations and sampling distributions were displayed in histograms for analysis along with their means and standard deviations. The results verified the principles of the central limit theorem and indicated that if the population is close to normality, a smaller sample size is needed so that the central limit theorem can take effect. But if the population is far from normality, a large sample size might be required. A proportion of population was proposed for a sample size based on the simulation results. Further studies and implications are discussed.