Research Articles (Foreign Languages)

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    Das Fach Deutsch an der University of the Western Cape
    (Association of German Studies (SAGV), 2010) van Ryneveld, Hannelore; Mentzner, Martina
    The current challenges facing the teaching of German as a foreign language at the University of the Western Cape are outlined. The article includes a brief historical overview and proposes research perspectives for the future.
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    Designing an Arabic speaking and listening skills e-course: resources, activities and students� perceptions
    (Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, 2021) Tawffeek, Mohammed
    his paper presents a fully online course model for teaching speaking and listening skills for students learning Arabic as a foreign language at the International Peace College South Africa on the NEO learning management platform. It also investigates the students' attitudes towards the course. The course was developed by the researcher during the first semester of 2020. This period coincided with South Africa�s first wave of COVID-19, and the country�s first strict lockdown. The syllabus consists of three components: Listening, speaking and conversational Arabic. It includes various technology-enhanced activities and resources which were developed by using LMS features, Web 2.0 tools, and e-learning specifications such as Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). The integration of technology in the course is based on an approach that combines Bloom's taxonomy and Technology Integration Matrix (TIM). Apart from the description of the course, this study used a thirty-item questionnaire to investigate the attitudes of thirty-one learners who participated in the course. They answered questions about the course�s resources, activities as well as its impact on their language skills. Results from the questionnaire revealed that the respondents' attitudes towards the online course were positive and statistically significant at p <.05. The design and the approach adopted in this study can apply to any context of language teaching. It provides a myriad of technology-enhanced activities that can be effectively used to teach listening and speaking skills virtually. Foreign language teachers can adopt this approach in its entirety, or with idiosyncratic modifications to design their language courses, irrespective of the virtual learning ecology (VLE) they use.
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    Enhancing instrumental competence in translator training in a higher education context: A task-based approach
    (Academy Publication, 2023) Mohammed, Tawffeek A. S.
    Abstract�This study aims to design a task-based e-Course for teaching computer-aided translation technology in a higher education context. It also investigates the impact of the e-Course on enhancing the instrumental competence of trainees, as reflected from their use of translation products. This study employs mixed qualitative and quantitative methods using descriptive statistics, pre-post paired sample tests, and an analysis of the translation process. Results of the paired-sample tests showed a noticeable increase in the scores of trainees. The difference in means between the pre and post-tests is statistically significant at P < 0.05. The descriptive statistics of errors have also shown that translation errors decreased dramatically after completing the e-Course. Analysis of the translation process indicated that trainees developed a noticeable mastery over translation competence when employing various CAT tools in the translation process.
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    An exploration of student interpreters� attitudes towards the undergraduate interpreting training programmes at Yemeni universities
    (Academy Publication, 2023) Al-Sowaidi, Belqes; Mohammed, Tawffeek
    This study investigates the attitudes of trainee interpreters towards their training programmes at Yemeni universities. 61 interpreters in Taiz province participated in the study. A 16-item questionnaire was designed to explore their attitudes towards their programmes. The findings of this study show that the interpreters are not satisfied with the current programmes. The results also show that the programme does notadequately enhance the interpreting competence of would-be interpreters. The programme is mainly concerned with the enhancement of the linguistic and cultural competencies, paying less attention to other components of interpreting competence such as instrumental, psycho-physiological, and strategic. The results also show that respondents are not satisfied with the content of instructional modules, activities used in the training, the time allocated for practicums, and the amount of technology integration. This study has also investigated the interpreting directionality of beginner and advanced student interpreters at Al-Saeed University by quantitatively analysing their final scores in interpreting modules. Beginner and advanced groups in the current study demonstrate different levels of interpreting competence in both directions. The results from various statistical tools show that student interpreters, whether beginners or advanced, are more competent to interpret into their mother tongue, while very few of them show balanced skills in both directions. Additionally, the overall scores of beginner and advanced student interpreters in both directions do not reflect the expected level of proficiency.
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    Im Gespr�ch mit Jose F.A. Oliver - 'viel-stimmig und meer-sprachig'.
    (Peter Lang, 2008) van Ryneveld, Hannelore
    Jos� Oliver is a multilingual poet of Andalusian descent who writes poetry in German. His first poetry was published in the mid-eighties and his writings were seen as part of migrant literature (also referred to in the seventies as guestworker literature). He has however moved beyond those boundaries and has written himself into (�eingeschrieben�) the German language and his poetry is characterised by a breaking- up (�auf-brechen�) of the language and thereby creating sound and word structures which strip away the common usage in an attempt to regain the original meanings of words.The interview with Jos� Oliver was conducted in February 2005 in Hausach in the Black Forest.
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    Planning a dictionary for mother tongue education: a conceptual framework for Gabonese languages
    (SUN, 2017) Assam, Blanche Nyangone
    The present article is a plea for mother tongue education dictionary projects in Gabonese lexicography. The latter has been in a fast-developing process for the past twenty years and has experienced quite an important crop of dictionary products in such a short time. However, the production of dictionaries for mother tongue education, especially for Gabonese native lan-guages, has been totally neglected. Only a very limited number of projects, which have ever since remained at the level of studies, do exist. This article provides a conceptual plan for mother tongue education dictionary production in Gabonese native languages. It successively suggests an organi-sation plan and a dictionary conceptualisation plan.
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    The topoi of Mandela's death in the Arabic speaking media: A corpus-based political discourse analysis
    (Frontiers Media, 2022) Mohammed, Tawffeek A. S.; Banda, Felix; Patel, Mahmoud
    The present study attempts a political discourse analysis of a spoken Arabic corpus on the death of Nelson Mandela. The corpus mainly consists of the coverage of some Arabic-speaking TV channels that was broadcasted in the aftermath of the announcement of Nelson Mandela�s death in 2013. The discourse-historical approach was employed with a view to finding out the various topoi and ideologies deployed in the corpus. For this purpose, the spoken corpus used in this study was first transcribed using EUDICO Linguistic Annotator (ELAN), a transcription tool for multimodal texts. Afterward, the corpus was compiled using Sketch Engine to enable researchers to process the data automatically and hence to use different computational tools that can assist in finding the various topoi. A computational analysis using collocations, wordlists, N-grams, and concordance features can provide a more precise analysis of the various topoi in context and hence to uncover the ideologies of participants/politicians.
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    Towards a Blended Programme for Arabic and Other Less CommonlyTaught Languages (LCTLs) in the South African Higher Education Context
    (Hindawi, 2021) Mohammed, T; Saidi, M; Assam, B; Eldokali, E
    Disruptive technologies are widely used in education today. They aim to develop the knowledge, skills, and competencies of students. The field of applied linguistics, in general, and foreign language teaching, in particular, have benefited immensely from the developments taking place in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). However, meaningful learning cannot be achieved by using technology indiscriminately; an understanding of educational theories and key instructional design models is urgently required. The present study argues that the adoption of established instructional design models will yield effective learning materials not only for the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) but also for language classrooms in general. It investigates the use of ADDIE instructional design model for designing and developing a blended syllabus for teaching Arabic as a foreign language in South African institutions of higher learning. The study also deals with the attitudes of the students towards the designed blended syllabus. The proposed syllabus is based on a wide range of web-based tools and e-learning specifications such as Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). This study serves as a guideline for developing instructional materials for teaching Arabic, as well as other languages.
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    Towards a comprehensive dictionary of Gabonese french
    (Buro van die WAT, 2022) Mavoungou, Paul A.; Ndinga-Koumba-Binza, Hugues Steve; Assam, Blanche Nyingone
    The present article reports on the conceptualization of the Dictionnaire G�n�ral du Fran�ais Gabonais. The dictionary project is a first of its kind in Gabonese lexicography. As an outcome of the inception of Gabonese French lexicography, the dictionary project arose from a discussion on the definition of Gabonese French, which Gabonese French lexicography should account for. In this article, the project background as well as the interests for the planned dictionary are presented. The article also deals with two key aspects of the dictionary conceptualization plan, i.e., lexicographic processes and the dictionary basis.
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    The use of corpora in translation into the second language: A project-based approach
    (Frontiers Media, 2022) Mohammed, Tawffeek A. S.
    This manuscript investigates to what extent the use of corpora could help translation trainees while translating from Arabic into English and vice versa. Forty Yemeni trainees, who were enrolled in an advanced course in Arabic-English translation during the academic year 2020, participated in the study. They participated in translation projects from which the data for this study was collected, using thinking aloud protocols and computational observation. The translation process was investigated using the translation process software Transalog, an eye-tracking software and the screen recording software Screen-O-Matic. This kind of computational observation enabled a researcher to discover the extent to which the participants were able to employ corpora in their translation projects.
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    What French for Gabonese French lexicography?
    (SUN, 2016) Assam, Blanche Nyangone; Ndinga-Koumba-Binza, Hugues Steve; Ompoussa, Virginie
    This paper is a response to Mavoungou (2013a) who has pleaded for the production of a dictionary of Gabonese French as variant B of the French language. The paper intends to comprehend the concept of "Gabonese French". It gives an outline of the situation of French within the language diversity of Gabon as a contribution to the theoretical perspective toward the inception of Gabonese French lexicography. Answers are given to the following questions: What French is described in existing Gabonese French studies? What French is and should be presented in Gabonese French dictionary production?
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    Writing from the margins - and beyond
    (Association for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa, 2006) van Ryneveld, Hannelore
    In 1987 Jos� F. A. Oliver published his first poetry volume Auf-Bruch in Germany. His standing as a German-speaking poet from Spanish-Andalusian stock was linked to the Gastarbeiterliteratur, or migrant worker literature in Germany, a literature that writes from the margins of both the literary and economic world of the Federal Republic of Germany. Developments within Oliver's oeuvre over the past twenty years, how ever, indicate a movement away from the literary periphery into main-stream German literature. This article explores these dynamics, using Jos� F. A. Oliver's writings to illustrate this conjecture.