“Fortunately,I found a home here that allows me personal expression”: Co-teaching in the bilingual Hebrew-Arabic-speaking preschool in Israel

In this study, we asked how co-teachers in a bilingual preschool overcome challenges in the relationship-building stage, rethink their language education ideology, and coordinate language instruction strategies, and acknowledge their cultural and professional background. The participants in the study were two teachers: one Hebrew-speaking and one Arabic-speaking in Israel. During one academic year, we conducted observations and interviews with teachers. Findings showed that the teaming process was built on the teachers' openness to the different professional and cultural experience, readiness to rethink the initial language education ideology and to modify language strategies. The co-teachers' teaming was characterized by agentic behavior.     

Reading in Arabic orthography: The effect of vowels and context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers

This study investigated the effect of Arabic vowels and Arabic context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers reading narrative stories and newspaper articles. Central to this study is the belief that reading theory today should consider additional variables, especially when explaining the reading process in Arabic orthography among poor and skilled readers. This orthography has not been studied: reading theory today is the sum of conclusions from studies conducted in Latin orthography. The subjects were 109 tenth-grade native Arabic speakers, 39 of them poor readers and 70 skilled readers. Subjects had to read Arabic narrative stories and newspaper articles. There were four reading conditions for each text type: vowelized text, unvowelized text, vowelized word naming, and unvowelized word naming. The results showed that vowels and contexts were important variables to facilitate word recognition in poor and skilled readers in Arabic orthography. A new Arabic reading model for skilled readers is suggested.     

Storybook writing in first grade

Research literature on writingstorybooks overlooks first graders. This ispuzzling as children enter first grade havingemergent literacy, in reading, writing, andstory composition. It may reflect the belief that at thisage children should learn to read and write(conventionally) as the curriculum demands,while elaborate writing is assumed be taughtand developed in higher grades. This study investigated story writing by Arab(N = 184) and Jewish (N = 321) first graders inIsrael. The children were presented with fourrelated pictures, asked to paste them in thesequence of their choice in a booklet, and thento write a narrative in their first language(Arabic or Hebrew). Writing the storybook wasperceived as a space for literacy development,and was tested in the contextof two instruction methods: Success For All(SFA) and whole-class Active Learning (AL). Theclasses were observed and teachers wereinterviewed on writing instruction.Nineteen categories of writing yieldedthree clusters–factors: book print awareness,writing conventions, and story quality. Thesethen served as measures for writing outcomes. Jewish and Arab children in SFA achieved higherscores than AL students; the Jews were higherthan the Arabs on most categories, but theestimate gain was highest for Arabs in SFA. The effect of SFA was highest for at-riskJewish students and lowest for at-risk Arabstudents. The results are discussed against thelinguistic and cultural background of the twogroups and in respect of their implications forwriting instruction in a bilingual context.     

Morpho-Phonemic Similarity within and between Languages: A Factor to be Considered in Processing Arabic and Hebrew

The goal of the present study was to explore the pattern of lexical connections between translation equivalents represented in the cognitive system of an Arabic-Hebrew bilingual. To achieve this goal, repetition priming effects (reaction times (RTs) and accuracy measures) were compared between translation equivalents in the two forms of Arabic, Spoken Arabic (SA) and Literary Arabic (LA), with those between translation equivalents in Hebrew and LA, in native Arabic students living in Israel. While these students master Hebrew as well as they master LA, they consider it as a second language. LA targets were preceded by cognate and non-cognate translation equivalents in SA or Hebrew either immediately (Lag 0) or separated by four unrelated words (Lag 4), in a lexical decision task. The participants were requested to make a word/non-word decision regardless of language. Across languages, morpho-phonemic similarities augmented the repetition priming effects. At Lag 0 this effect was larger when the primes were in Hebrew than when they were in SA. At Lag 4, however, the priming effect between Hebrew and LA was significantly reduced (and even absent for non-cognates). In contrast, the priming effect between Spoken and Literary Arabic was only slightly attenuated. The conclusion was that, despite the intensive daily use and psychological proximity, Spoken and Literary Arabic are represented as first and second languages in the cognitive system of the native Arabic reader, entertaining distinct lexica. However, the strength of the lexical associations between translation equivalents is influenced by the frequency of concomitant use.     

汉语、阿拉伯语篇章代词回指语功能对比研究

从“代词回指语先行项的可及性”、“代词回指语的功能”、“代词回指语的数量分布”等三个方面论述汉语和阿拉伯语篇章中代词回指语表现出的差异,这种差异是由两种语言本质上存在的不同所决定的。在进行两种语言的篇章理解和互译时,只有充分考虑到二者在代词回指语使用上所呈现出的特性,才能对篇章语义正确地理解,进而得到理想的译文。     

Development and Large-Scale Validation of an Instrument to Assess Arabic-Speaking Students' Attitudes Toward Science

This study is part of a large-scale project focused on ‘Qatari students' Interest in, and Attitudes toward, Science’ (QIAS). QIAS aimed to gauge Qatari student attitudes toward science in grades 3–12, examine factors that impact these attitudes, and assess the relationship between student attitudes and prevailing modes of science teaching in Qatari schools. This report details the development and validation of the ‘Arabic-Speaking Students' Attitudes toward Science Survey’ (ASSASS), which was specifically developed for the purposes of the QIAS project. The theories of reasoned action and planned behavior (TRAPB) [Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (2005). The influence of attitudes on behavior. In D. Albarracín, B. T. Johnson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The handbook of attitudes (pp. 173–221). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum] guided the instrument development. Development and validation of the ASSASS proceeded in 3 phases. First, a 10-member expert panel examined an initial pool of 74 items, which were revised and consolidated into a 60-item version of the instrument. This version was piloted with 369 Qatari students from the target schools and grade levels. Analyses of pilot data resulted in a refined version of the ASSASS, which was administered to a national probability sample of 3027 participants representing all students enrolled in grades 3–12 in the various types of schools in Qatar. Of the latter, 1978 students completed the Arabic version of the instrument. Analyses supported a robust, 5-factor model for the instrument, which is consistent with the TRAPB framework. The factors were: Attitudes toward science and school science, unfavorable outlook on science, control beliefs about ability in science, behavioral beliefs about the consequences of engaging with science, and intentions to pursue science.     

科技期刊中阿拉伯数字与汉字数字使用的规范化问题

在科技期刊中，数字的使用频率很高，但阿拉伯数字与汉字数字在实际应用中经常出现混用的现象，影响了科技信息的利用，交流和传统，为此，给出了阿拉伯数字与汉字数字的用法区别。     

阿拉伯文化对西班牙文学的影响思考

阿拉伯入侵西班牙成功后,在伊比利亚地区开始了将近八百年的统治,这一期间阿拉伯人将本国度的文化、思想观念、风土人情、习惯及价值观念等带到这一地带,在无形中影响着西班牙人的精神世界。人口的大规模迁移将新鲜的文化主流融入到西班牙人民当中,增添了新奇、丰富内涵的东方韵味。兼具中西方文化的精华造就了西班牙文学的多元化,闪烁着夺目的光彩。本文主要论述西班牙文学的创作背景,分析谣曲对西班牙文化的影响,最后集中探讨阿拉伯文化对西班牙文学的影响。希望对广大国外文学研究者提供借鉴性的参考资料,帮助他们进一步了解阿拉伯文化与西班牙文学之间的关系。     

The Child Abuse Potential Inventory: Development of an Arabic version

The Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) is a well-validated screening tool for assessing potential for child physical abuse, and has been translated into many different languages. To date the CAPI has not been translated into Arabic or used in any studies in Arabic-speaking populations. This study reports on the process of adapting the CAPI into Arabic Language which was undertaken following the International Society of Pharma-economics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) guidelines. The translation/adaptation process was multi-stage, and involved the use of a Delphi process, cognitive debriefing, back translation, and a pilot testing of the Arabic CAPI at two primary health care centers with a population of pregnant women (n = 60). Following “literal translation” 73 out of the 160 items needed re-phrasing to adapt the items to the Oman context. No differences were found when comparing results of the translated or back-translated versions to source; however, eight items needed further amendment following translated to back-translated comparison and feedback from the pilot. Iterations were resolved following in-depth interviews. Discrepancies were due to differences in culture, parenting practices, and religion. Piloting of the tool indicated mean score value of 155.8 (SD = 59.4) and eleven women (18%) scored above the cut off value of 215. This Arabic translation of the CAPI was undertaken using rigorous methodology and sets the scene for further research on the Arabic CAPI within Arabic-speaking populations.     

Prisons before Modernity: Incarceration in the Medieval Indo-Mediterranean

Over the course of the sixth/twelfth century, a new literary genre entered the Eastern Islamic world: the Persian prison poem (?absiyyāt). Far from being an isolated event, the prison poem was forged when punishment came to be reconfigured as incarceration. This development was reflected in literary texts extending across South Asia, Azerbaijan, and continental Europe. Locating the institution of the prison outside European modernity, this study traces the material grounds for this new literary form and situates this archive globally. Concomitantly with studying the medieval literature of incarceration, it evaluates the Indo-Mediterranean as a discursive rubric for the study of pre-modern literary cultures.