Stillbirth Among Arab Women in Canada, 1981-2015

Objectives: The Arabic-speaking population is increasing in Europe and North America. Evidence suggests that Arab migrants have a greater risk of adverse birth outcomes than nonmigrants, but the risk of stillbirth is largely understudied. We examined inequality in stillbirth rates between Arab women and the French and English majority of women in Quebec, Canada. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of all births in Quebec from 1981 through 2015. We computed stillbirth rates by period and cause of death, and we used log binomial regression to estimate the association between Arabic mother tongue and stillbirth, adjusted for maternal characteristics. Results: Stillbirth rates per 1000 births overall were lower among women with Arabic mother tongue (3.89) than among women with French or English mother tongue (4.52), and rates changed little over time. However, Arabic-speaking women from Arab countries had a higher adjusted risk of stillbirth than French- or English-speaking women (risk ratio = 1.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-1.42). Congenital anomalies, termination of pregnancy, and undetermined causes contributed to a disproportionate number of stillbirths among women with Arabic mother tongue compared with the French- and English-speaking majority. Conclusions: Arabic-speaking women from Arab countries have higher risks of stillbirth compared with the French and English majority in Quebec. Strategies to reduce stillbirth risk among Arabic speakers should focus on improving identification of causes of death.

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Fasting during Ramadan Increases Risk of Very Preterm Birth among Arabic-Speaking Women

Journal of Nutrition ◽

10.1093/jn/nxz126 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 149 (10) ◽

pp. 1826-1832 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rasmi M Tith ◽

Marianne Bilodeau-Bertrand ◽

Ga Eun Lee ◽

Jessica Healy-Profitós ◽

Nathalie Auger

Keyword(s):

Preterm Birth ◽

Birth Certificates ◽

Second Trimester ◽

Ramadan Fasting ◽

Maternal Characteristics ◽

Very Preterm ◽

Arabic Speakers ◽

Very Preterm Birth ◽

Arabic Speaking ◽

The Impact

ABSTRACT Background The impact of fasting on risk of preterm birth during Ramadan is unclear. Objectives We evaluated the association between Ramadan fasting during pregnancy and risk of preterm birth for Arab women in Canada. Methods We analyzed birth certificates from 3,123,508 deliveries in Quebec, Canada, from 1981 to 2017. We identified 78,109 births of Arabic-speaking women and determined if Ramadan occurred during any trimester of pregnancy. We calculated rates of extreme (22–27 wk), very (28–31 wk), and late (32–36 wk) preterm birth and estimated RRs and 95% CIs for the association of Ramadan fasting with risk of preterm birth by pregnancy trimester, using log-binomial regression models adjusted for maternal characteristics. Results Arabic speakers had an overall preterm birth rate of 5.53 per 100 births, but rates varied with timing of Ramadan. Among Arabic speakers, fasting during Ramadan between weeks 15–21 of the second trimester was associated with 1.33 times the risk of very preterm birth relative to no fasting (95% CI: 1.06, 1.68). Between weeks 22 and 27 of the second trimester, fasting during Ramadan was associated with 1.53 times the risk of very preterm birth (95% CI: 1.21, 1.93). Ramadan fasting was not associated with extreme or late preterm birth regardless of the trimester of pregnancy. Conclusions In this study of 78,109 births to Arabic-speaking women in Quebec, Ramadan fasting during the second pregnancy trimester was associated with the risk of very preterm birth. Optimal prenatal education about nutritional needs in the second trimester of pregnancy is recommended.

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Language of written medical educational materials for non-English speaking populations: an evaluation of a simplified bi-lingual approach

BMC Medical Education ◽

10.1186/s12909-019-1846-x ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Tamim Alsuliman ◽

Lugien Alasadi ◽

Angie Mouki ◽

Bayan Alsaid

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

Medical Students ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

English Language ◽

Mother Tongue ◽

The Other ◽

Multiple Choice Questions ◽

Written Texts ◽

English Speaking ◽

Arabic Speaking

Abstract Background Debates have arisen in various non-English speaking countries over the chosen language of instruction in medical education, whether it has to be the English language or the mother tongue. English-based education supporters argue that English is the leading international language of medicine and research, and a crucial tool for Continuing Medical Education (CME), as well as for students who seek practice abroad. On the other hand, mother-tongue-based medical education supporters present it as a way to endorse communication and comprehension between medical practitioners and health care system users, to bridge the gap between practitioners and the paramedical staff, and to overcome linguistic dualism and the language thinking disparity while studying in another. This study aimed to evaluate one of the simplified bi-lingual approaches in terms of medical-educational-written texts for a non-English speaking population: Arabic speaking medical students in specific. Methods 1546 Arabic-speaking-medical students from different countries participated in a one-step-interactive-experimental-online test. The test assessed participants’ scientific comprehension of three distinct written paragraphs: The first paragraph used conventional mother tongue (Arabic), the second combined English terminology and simplified mother tongue (hybrid), and the third used an English excerpt (English). Two multiple-choice questions (First question in Arabic, second in English) followed each paragraph. Response time was communicated for each paragraph. Participants were asked to select their favorable method. Repeated Measures ANOVA models and Paired Samples t-Test were used for statistical analysis. Results Participants scored a mean of [0.10] for the Arabic paragraph, [0.72] for the hybrid paragraph, and [0.24] for the English paragraph (P < 0.001). Results showed a significantly higher mean of points and correct answers within the fastest time for the hybrid paragraph [0.68] compared to the Arabic [0.08] and English [0.18] paragraphs (P < 0.001). Moreover, 50% of participants preferred the hybrid paragraph over the other two paragraphs. Conclusions Taking into consideration the large number of participants and the statistically significant results, authors propose that simplified Arabic combined with English terminology may present a viable alternative method for medical-educational-written texts in Arabic-speaking population.

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Morphological ability among monolingual and bilingual speakers in early childhood: The case of two Semitic languages

International Journal of Bilingualism ◽

10.1177/1367006918781079 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (5) ◽

pp. 1087-1105 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Abeer Asli-Badarneh ◽

Mark Leikin

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Mother Tongue ◽

Inflectional Morphology ◽

Derivational Morphology ◽

Semitic Languages ◽

Plural Noun ◽

Bilingual Speakers ◽

Arabic Speakers ◽

Morphological Ability ◽

Arabic Speaking

This study examines the possible effects of bilingualism, mother tongue and type of morphology on morphological awareness of Arabic- and Hebrew-speaking preschoolers (mean age – 5:4). Four groups of children participated in the study: (1) 50 Arabic-speaking monolingual speakers; (2) 50 Hebrew-speaking monolingual speakers; (3) 50 Arabic/Hebrew bilingual speakers; and (4) 50 Hebrew/Arabic bilingual speakers. Participants from the bilingual groups were sequential non-balanced bilingual speakers who started learning a second language at ages 3–4 in a bilingual Arabic/Hebrew kindergarten. All children performed two tasks on inflectional morphology and three tasks on derivational morphology in one or both languages. To examine inflectional morphology, domain plural nouns were chosen because of their linear nature in both Hebrew and Arabic and because inflectional plural-noun morphology is acquired very early. In derivational morphology, the focus was on the verbs because of their high token frequency, early acquisition compared to nominal morphology, and its importance for Semitic languages. The results demonstrate significant effects of mother tongue, bilingualism and type of morphology on the children’s performance. The better results were obtained in Hebrew-speaking monolinguals and in Arabic-speaking bilinguals. Monolingual Hebrew speakers performed better in Hebrew than Arabic-speakers did in Arabic. At the same time, Arabic-speaking bilingual children demonstrated significantly better results in Hebrew (second language) than Hebrew speakers did in Arabic (second language). Analysis of the findings also shows that differences in performance among the bilingual and monolingual groups seem to relate not only to psycholinguistic factors such as linguistic complexity but also to sociolinguistic factors (e.g. diglossia in Arabic).

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Normative Data for a Tablet-Based Dual-Task Assessment in Healthy Older Adults

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology ◽

10.1093/arclin/acaa121 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Maxime Lussier ◽

Kathia Saillant ◽

Tudor Vrinceanu ◽

Carol Hudon ◽

Louis Bherer

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Dual Task ◽

Normative Data ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Highly Educated ◽

Coefficient Of Variability ◽

French And English ◽

Task Assessment ◽

English Speaking ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Objective The objective of this study is to provide normative data for a tablet-based dual-task assessment in older adults without cognitive deficits. Method In total, 264 participants aged between 60 and 90 years, French and English-speaking, were asked to perform two discrimination tasks, alone and concurrently. The participants had to answer as fast as possible to one or two images appearing in the center of the tablet by pressing to the corresponding buttons. Normative data are provided for reaction time (RT), coefficient of variation, and accuracy. Analyses of variance were performed by trial types (single-pure, single-mixed, dual-mixed), and linear regressions assessed the relationship between performance and sociodemographic characteristics. Results The participants were highly educated and a large proportion of them were women (73.9%). The accuracy on the task was very high across all blocks. RT data revealed both a task-set cost and a dual-task cost between the blocks. Age was associated with slower RT and with higher coefficient of variability. Men were significantly slower on dual-mixed trials, but their coefficient of variability was lower on single-pure trials. Education was not associated with performance. Conclusions This study provides normative data for a tablet-based dual-task assessment in older adults without cognitive impairment, which was lacking. All participants completed the task with good accuracy in less than 15 minutes and thus, the task is transferable to clinical and research settings.

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The Relationship Between Language Barrier in Non-Arabic Nurses and Anxiety in Cardiovascular Patients: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study

Journal of Patient Experience ◽

10.1177/2374373521989242 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 237437352198924

Author(s):

Jassem Almualem ◽

Amal Darwish ◽

Ahmed AlFaraj

Keyword(s):

Health Care Providers ◽

Care Delivery ◽

Descriptive Study ◽

Language Barrier ◽

P Value ◽

Care Providers ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Related Information ◽

Arabic Speakers ◽

Arabic Speaking

Patients with cardiac conditions may suffer from anxiety related to prognosis and further rehabilitation. Anxiety could be exacerbated by different factors including miscommunication, which could be attributed to the linguistic barrier, that exists among health care providers. At Saud Al-Babtain Cardiac Center (SBCC), nurses who are non-native Arabic speakers could have difficulty communicating disease-related information at different stages of nursing care. Is it possible to identify the language barrier as a source of anxiety for admitted patients with cardiac diseases? In this cross-sectional, descriptive study, 50 patients were included following the diagnosis of cardiac disease and post-cardiac surgery. A questionnaire that measures anxiety level showed that patients who were handled by Arabic-speaking nurses reported less collective mean for the anxiety domain statements of (20.08) versus those who were handled by Non-Arabic-speaking nurses (28.55, P value = .041). Our finding indicates that anxiety levels increased when there was a language barrier between nurses and patients, which could affect the quality of care delivery at SBCC.

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Some analogical methods of teaching English as a second foreign language

Multicultural Learning and Teaching ◽

10.1515/mlt-2021-0004 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Paul Vincent Mirabile

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Mother Tongue ◽

Morphological Features ◽

Teaching English ◽

Pedagogical Approach ◽

Second Languages ◽

French And English ◽

The University

Abstract To teach English as a second foreign language at university levels provides the educator or professor an excellent occasion to compare the first and second languages by a series of analogical activities that not only highlight the similar forms and structures of them, but more important still, oblige students to comprehend these forms and structures without having either to rely on or depend upon their mother tongue or apprehend them through the prism of their own. In this article are compared Turkish, French and Chinese forms and structures with English through sets of analogical activities that I prepared and applied in classrooms with my Russian students studying the aforesaid languages at the University of Academgorodok near Novosibirsk in Siberia. It was my methodical experiment to bring together English/Turkish, English/French and English/Chinese as interrelated objects of study; to put into relief the interpenetrating analogical elements that these languages possess as a pedagogical approach to them in spite of their very different language families and distinctive structural and morphological features.

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Jewish Identities in the Arab Middle East: The Case of Egypt in Retrospect

International Journal of Middle East Studies ◽

10.1017/s0020743814000646 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 46 (3) ◽

pp. 593-596

Author(s):

Rami Ginat

Keyword(s):

Culturally Diverse ◽

Target Population ◽

Arab Countries ◽

National Identities ◽

Way Of Life ◽

Jewish Communities ◽

Anti Semitism ◽

Arabic Speaking ◽

Historical Past ◽

Generation Offspring

Much work has been done in recent decades on the histories of the Jews of Arab lands across a variety of time periods, reflecting an increasing interest in the historical past of the Jews of the “Orient.” While diverse, this literature may be divided into several general groups. The first comprises studies written by Western and Israeli scholars and encompasses a broad spectrum of Arabic-speaking countries. This literature has explored, among other things, issues relating to the way of life and administration of ethnically and culturally diverse Jewish communities, their approaches to Zionism and the question of their national identities, their positions regarding the Zionist–Israeli–Arab conflict in its various phases, and the phenomena of anti-Semitism, particularly in light of the increasing escalation of the conflict. It includes works by Israeli intellectuals of Mizrahi heritage, some of whom came together in the late 1990s in a sociopolitical dissident movement known as the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition. The target audience of this movement was Mizrahi Jews: refugees and emigrants from Arab countries as well as their second- and third-generation offspring. The movement, which was not ideologically homogeneous (particularly regarding approaches to the resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict), took a postcolonialist approach to the Zionist narrative and enterprise, and was critical of the entrenchment of the Ashkenazi (European-extraction) Jews among the elites of the emerging Israeli society. The movement had scant success in reaching its target population: the majority of Mizrahi/Sephardi Jews living in Israel. Nevertheless, it brought to the fore the historical socioeconomic injustices that many Jews from Arab countries had experienced since arriving in Israel, whether reluctantly or acquiescently.

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The Effectiveness of Input on Voiced and Unvoiced Consonant Sounds in a Native Arabic Speaking Context: An Action Research Project

English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies ◽

10.22158/eltls.v2n3p1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. p1

Author(s):

Gareth Morgan

Keyword(s):

Action Research ◽

Control Group ◽

Action Research Project ◽

Research Project ◽

English Speaking ◽

The Difference ◽

Arabic Speaking ◽

Consonant Sounds ◽

Positive Effect ◽

Experimental Group

The paper describes the process and outcomes of an action research project with the aim of determining whether focusing classroom input on voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds has a positive effect on their production. Statistics were derived from English-speaking respondents listening to native Arabic speaking participants from an experimental group, who had received input on the difference between these sounds, and practiced their production, as well as to speakers from a control group who had received neither input nor practice. The rates of intelligibility were compared, with the conclusion being that the provision of limited input on this pronunciation issue does not, generally speaking, result in the ability to produce the sounds with greater clarity.

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Vocabulaire périglaciaire bilingue

Cahiers de géographie du Québec ◽

10.7202/020381ar ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 6 (12) ◽

pp. 201-226 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Louis-Edmond Hamelin ◽

Peter Clibbon

Keyword(s):

Systematic Study ◽

Cold Climate ◽

Frozen Ground ◽

Patterned Ground ◽

Chemical Erosion ◽

Action Effect ◽

Climate Action ◽

French And English ◽

Glacier Ice ◽

English Speaking

A considerable lack of agreement exists, particularly between French and English-speaking geomorphologists, on the precise use of many periglacial terms, and up to the presenty there bas been little correlation of the periglacial terminology of these two languages. Accordingly, the authors have prepared a bilingual glossary of 900 periglacial terms in an attempt to eliminate some of this confusion. Many of the problems encountered in the preparation of this glossary result from different conceptions of the terms « periglacial » and « périglaciaire ». Periglacial studies are generally considered to involve analyses of permanently frozen ground, patterned ground and frost-shattering, whereas the term « périglaciaire »refers to the systematic study of all « cold »processes (except those associated with glacier ice) and their resultant phenomena. The term thus includes, amongst other things, gelifraction, gelifluction, geliturbation, fluvioperiglacial action, effect of sea, lake, river and ground ice, windwork in areas of cold climate, action of snow, and chemical erosion by meltwater.

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Editor's Column: Provincializing English

PMLA ◽

10.1632/pmla.2014.129.1.7 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 129 (1) ◽

pp. 7-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Simon Gikandi

Keyword(s):

British Empire ◽

Mother Tongue ◽

Global Politics ◽

Global English ◽

End Of History ◽

The World ◽

English Speaking ◽

Global Language ◽

The Moment ◽

Emerging Powers

What are we to do with english? Of all the major languages of the world, it causes the most anxiety. Its words seem to want to invade the citadels of other languages, forcing institutions such as the Académie Française to call for barricades against it; in the enclaves of Englishness, a Celtic fringe struggles to hold on to the remnants of the mother tongue; and in most parts of the world those without the ostensibly anointed language often see themselves as permanently locked out of the spring-wells of modernity. Sometimes the global linguistic map appears to be a simple division between those with English and those without it. In the reaches of the former British Empire, a swath of the globe stretching from Vancouver east to the Malay Peninsula, English has come to be seen as an advantage in the competitive world of global politics and trade; in the emerging powers of East Asia, most notably China and South Korea, the consumption of global English is evident in the huge sale of books on English as a second language; in parts of the world traditionally cut off from English, including eastern Europe, the mastery of the language marks the moment of arrival. Most linguistic research on English is carried out in institutions in the Germanic and Nordic zones of northern Europe. In popular books on language and in serious linguistic studies, a powerful myth of English as the global language has taken hold. We are presented not with a world at the end of history but with one in which English sits at the center of a new global community: “English-speaking people and their culture are more widespread in numbers and influence than any civilization the world has ever seen,” claims Robert McCrum (257).

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