The Impact of Online Interactive Tasks on L2 Willingness to Communicate: the Case of Arabic Speaking Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 238 (238) ◽  
pp. 46-96
Author(s):  
Khaled El Ebyary El Ebyary
2021 ◽  
pp. 107815522199844
Author(s):  
Abdullah M Alhammad ◽  
Nora Alkhudair ◽  
Rawan Alzaidi ◽  
Latifa S Almosabhi ◽  
Mohammad H Aljawadi

Introduction Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting is a serious complication of cancer treatment that compromises patients’ quality of life and treatment adherence, which necessitates regular assessment. Therefore, there is a need to assess patient-reported nausea and vomiting using a validated scale among Arabic speaking cancer patient population. The objective of this study was to translate and validate the Functional Living Index-Emesis (FLIE) instrument in Arabic, a patient-reported outcome measure designed to assess the influence of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting on patients’ quality of life. Methods Linguistic validation of an Arabic-language version was performed. The instrument was administered to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in a tertiary hospital's cancer center in Saudi Arabia. Results One-hundred cancer patients who received chemotherapy were enrolled. The participants’ mean age was 53.3 ± 14.9 years, and 50% were female. Half of the participants had a history of nausea and vomiting with previous chemotherapy. The Cronbach coefficient alpha for the FLIE was 0.9606 and 0.9736 for nausea and vomiting domains, respectively, which indicated an excellent reliability for the Arabic FLIE. The mean FLIE score was 110.9 ± 23.5, indicating no or minimal impact on daily life (NIDL). Conclusions The Arabic FLIE is a valid and reliable tool among the Arabic-speaking cancer population. Thus, the Arabic version of the FLIE will be a useful tool to assess the quality of life among Arabic speaking patients receiving chemotherapy. Additionally, the translated instrument will be a useful tool for future research studies to explore new antiemetic treatments among cancer patients.


2019 ◽  
Vol 149 (10) ◽  
pp. 1826-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasmi M Tith ◽  
Marianne Bilodeau-Bertrand ◽  
Ga Eun Lee ◽  
Jessica Healy-Profitós ◽  
Nathalie Auger

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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882092896
Author(s):  
Mostafa Zare ◽  
Zohreh Gooniband Shooshtari ◽  
Alireza Jalilifar

This study aims to explore the impact of oral corrective feedback types on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ willingness to communicate across proficiency levels. It also investigates how EFL learners view different types of feedback in relation to their willingness to communicate. Sixty Iranian EFL learners were tracked in four proficiency levels. Initially, the participants filled in a questionnaire to measure their attitudes to oral CF and their willingness to communicate. Subsequent to the teachers’ employment of explicit correction, recasts, and prompts, the learners’ willingness to communicate was measured anew. A semi-structured interview was also conducted. The results revealed learners’ high preference for prompts. A two-way mixed between-within ANOVA demonstrated a significant effect for both oral corrective feedback and proficiency level on willingness to communicate. Furthermore, elicitative types of feedback were ranked as the most contributory feedback type to L2 willingness to communicate.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Mardziah Shamsudin ◽  
Moomala Othman ◽  
Maryam Jahedi ◽  
Dalia Aralas

The present study investigated the impact of two instructional methods, Debate and Philosophy Inquiry (PI), in enhancing Willingness to Communicate (WTC) among two groups of English as a Second Language (ESL) learners who were randomly selected. In each group there were sixteen participants. The researchers used independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test to analyze the collected data. The data analysis using paired samples t-test showed that both methods of instruction have a significant effect on learners’ WTC. However, the learners’ WTC increased more in Debate group comparing to the Philosophy Inquiry classroom discussion group. The results indicate that Debate is more effective than Philosophy Inquiry classroom discussion in enhancing ESL learners’ WTC.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Herman M. Batibo

Arab travellers and traders along the eastern African coast, more than 1000 years ago, were the first Arabic speaking people to bring Arabic language in contact with the other African languages in eastern and later southern Africa. Over the years, Arabic gained a lot of influence in the region. The impact of Arabic can be seen, especially in old scripts, loanwords, Arabic accents and sound features in some of the local languages.This article examines the nature and extent of contact situations between Arabic and two languages, namely Kiswahili, spoken in eastern Africa, and Setswana, spoken in southern Africa. The study is based on the Language Contact Theory, which states that the nature, length and intensity of language contact are the key factors determining the linguistic and sociolinguistic processes that take place. Contact between languages could be either direct or indirect. The main argument of the study is that the extent of influence of a language on another depends not only on the nature of contact, but also, and mainly, on the length and intensity of contact. The paper highlights the domains in which elements of Arabic origin have infiltrated or been adopted in these languages.


Author(s):  
Mahtab Zadkhast ◽  
Majid Farahian

The present study investigated the impact of immediate and delayed corrective feedback on Iranian EFL learners’ willingness to communicate. To attain the purpose of the study, 45 females intermediate students that were roughly selected according to their previous grades and their assigned  level in language school were chosen to participate in this study. Then they were divided to three equal groups: Experimental group 1(immediate feedback), Experimental group 2 (delayed feedback) and control group. In the first session, WTC questionnaire (MacIntyre ,2001 modified by Pourya Baghaei and Ali Dourakhshan) was administered to all groups as pretests. In group 1 the students’ errors were corrected by the teacher immediately after committing but in the second group, the students’ errors were written by the teacher and her comments were given to them when they finished their tasks. For the control group, the routine procedure of New Headway intermediate was followed. After about 12 sessions WTC was repeated as posttests. The findings revealed that immediate and delayed corrective feedback have a significant effect on EFL students’ level of WTC. The results, also demonstrated that experimental group 1 (immediate feedback) outweighed the other two groups in relation to their WTC. The findings have implication for pedagogy as well as further research.


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