scholarly journals Effects of Language Variety and Word Availability in Commercial Advertisements on Listener’s Lexical Recall

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 167-177
Author(s):  
Munerah Algernas ◽  
Yahya Aldholmi
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Key Word ◽  
Dialectal Arabic ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Modern Standard

Commercial advertisements in Arabic-speaking regions tend to alternate between dialectal Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, but it is not yet clear whether language variety has any impact on listener’s lexical recall. Insight into this issue should help enterprises design their commercial advertisements in a linguistically intelligent manner. This study addresses two questions: 1) How does language variety (dialectal vs. standard) affect listener’s lexical recall in commercial advertisements? 2) Do listeners recall words that have appeared in dialectal advertisements better than those that did not appear in advertisements using the same variety? Fifteen Saudi participants responded to a forced-choice memory test with 24 yes-no questions (3 per advertisement) asking participants to report whether they heard a specific key word in eight advertisements that utilized different language varieties. The findings show that Arabic speakers tend to perceive both Modern Standard Arabic and dialectal Arabic in commercial advertisements similarly, but tend to recall the presence of a key word in an advertisement better than its absence. Future research may increase the sample size and examine more Arabic varieties.

scholarly journals Effects of Language Variety and Word Availability in Commercial Advertisements on Listener’s Lexical Recall

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Munerah Algernas ◽  
Yahya Aldholmi
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Key Word ◽  
Dialectal Arabic ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Modern Standard

Commercial advertisements in Arabic-speaking regions tend to alternate between dialectal Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, but it is not yet clear whether language variety has any impact on listener’s lexical recall. Insight into this issue should help enterprises design their commercial advertisements in a linguistically intelligent manner. This study addresses two questions: 1) How does language variety (dialectal vs. standard) affect listener’s lexical recall in commercial advertisements? 2) Do listeners recall words that have appeared in dialectal advertisements better than those that did not appear in advertisements using the same variety? Fifteen Saudi participants responded to a forced-choice memory test with 24 yes-no questions (3 per advertisement) asking participants to report whether they heard a specific key word in eight advertisements that utilized different language varieties. The findings show that Arabic speakers tend to perceive both Modern Standard Arabic and dialectal Arabic in commercial advertisements similarly, but tend to recall the presence of a key word in an advertisement better than its absence. Future research may increase the sample size and examine more Arabic varieties.

Acquiring diglossia: mutual influences of formal and colloquial Arabic on children's grammaticality judgments

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
REEM KHAMIS-DAKWAR ◽  
KAREN FROUD ◽  
PETER GORDON
Keyword(s):  
Interference Effects ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
Local Variant ◽  
Colloquial Arabic ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Modern Standard

ABSTRACTThere are differences and similarities between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and spoken varieties of Arabic, in all language domains. To obtain preliminary insights into interactions between the acquisition of spoken and standard varieties of a language in a diglossic situation, we employed forced-choice grammaticality judgments to investigate morphosyntactic knowledge of MSA and the local variant of Palestinian Colloquial Arabic (PCA), in 60 Arabic-speaking children aged 6 ; 4 to 12 ; 4, from a school in Nazareth. We used morphosyntactic structures which either differed or were similar between PCA and standard Arabic. Children generally performed better on items presented in PCA than in standard Arabic, with the exception of constructions involving negation. Children performed better on items when the two constructions were similar in both language varieties. We discuss the results with respect to the multiple factors that affect acquisition in a diglossic situation, and relate our findings to the possibility of interference effects of diglossia on learning.

scholarly journals FACEBOOK WRITTEN LEVANTINE VERNACULAR LANGUAGES

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dua'a Abu Elhij'a
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Electronic Media ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Classical Language ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Msn Messenger ◽  
Modern Standard

Over the last fifteen years, in every Arabic-speaking country, young Arabic speakers have begun to write their spoken language in electronic media, such as Facebook, MSN Messenger, and so on.  The new way of writing in social media is a radical deviation from the traditional norm of writing the classical language—as well as what is commonly referred to as Modern Standard Arabic.  This study is presenting this phenomenon in the Levant— Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel/Palestine.

Codeswitching between Modern Standard and Colloquial Arabic as L2 sociolinguistic competence

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lama Nassif
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Standard Practice ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Sociolinguistic Competence ◽  
Colloquial Arabic ◽  
Modern Standard

Multidialectal use of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Arabic (CA) has become standard practice among Arabic speakers. Therefore, a question facing Arabic instructors and curriculum planners is what methods to adopt to raise learners’ awareness of this sociolinguistic reality. Some programs introduce MSA and one variety of CA from the beginning of Arabic instruction. However, the question of how learners who receive multidialectal training use MSA and CA simultaneously in their speech productions and how their MSA–CA use evolves over their years of Arabic study remains under-researched. The current study addressed these questions by studying the speech productions of 51 second language (L2) Arabic learners enrolled in three years of Arabic instruction. The data show that the participants consistently code-switched between MSA and CA, and seemed to conform to sociocultural norms designating MSA as more formal and CA as more personal and intimate. As learners’ proficiency levels increased, a wider range of sociolinguistic functions was observed. The study reinforces the importance of L2 Arabic curricula decisions that embrace the multidialectal use of Arabic in the L2 Arabic classroom and asserts learners’ ability to use MSA and CA simultaneously.

scholarly journals Argument omissions by deaf students in three languages and three modalities

2021 ◽  
pp. 014272372110162
Author(s):  
Rose Stamp ◽  
Rama Novogrodsky ◽  
Sabrin Shaban-Rabah
Keyword(s):  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Deaf Students ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
Language Deprivation ◽  
Linguistic Transfer ◽  
Palestinian Arabic ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Modern Standard

While it is common for deaf children to be bilingual in a spoken and signed language, studies often attribute any delays in language acquisition to language deprivation, rather than as a result of cross-linguistic interaction. This study compares the production of simple sentences in three languages (Palestinian Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, and Israeli Sign Language [ISL]) and three language modalities (spoken, written, and signed) by deaf and hearing students in an Arabic-speaking community. Thirty-eight school-age Palestinian Arabic–speaking students participated in a sentence elicitation task in which they retold the events portrayed in video clips. Hearing students ( n = 19) produced the sentences in spoken Palestinian Arabic and in written Modern Standard Arabic. Deaf students ( n = 19) produced the sentences in these two language varieties and additionally in ISL. Omissions of arguments and verbs were compared across the two groups and three languages. Results showed that deaf students omitted more arguments and verbs compared with their hearing peers who scored at close to ceiling. Deaf students produced more omissions for direct objects and more omissions in ISL. The findings can be interpreted in two possible ways: atypical effects resulting from inconsistent language input and cross-linguistic transfer known to arise in multilingual children.

The effects of motivation on processing instruction in the acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic gender agreement

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82
Author(s):  
Ayah Farhat ◽  
Alessandro Benati
Keyword(s):  
Academic Motivation ◽  
Processing Instruction ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Modern Standard Arabic ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Modern Standard

The present study investigates the effects of motivation and processing instruction on the acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic gender agreement. The role of individual differences (e.g. age, gender, aptitude, language background and working memory) on the positive effects generated by processing instruction has been investigated in the last few years. However, no previous research has been conducted to measure the possible effects of motivation on L2 learners exposed to processing instruction. In addition, a reasonable question to be addressed within the processing instruction research framework is whether its positive effects can be generalised to the acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic. The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) and the Attitude Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) motivation questionnaires were used to capture different variables that influence motivation in order to create the two different groups (high and low motivated). In this experimental study, forty-one native English school-age learners (aged 8–11) were assigned to two groups: ‘the high motivated group’ (n = 29): and the ‘low motivated group’ (n = 12). Both groups received processing instruction, which lasted for three hours. Sentence-level interpretation and production tasks were used in a pre-test and post-test design to measure instructional effects. The learners were required to fill in gaps in both written and spoken mode for the activities. The study also included a delayed post-test administered to the two groups four weeks later. The results indicated that both groups improved equally from pre-test to post-test in all assessment measures and they both retained the positive effects of the training in the delayed posttests. Processing instruction was proved to be the main factor for the improvement in performance regardless of the learner’s level of motivation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document