Major Problems in English among Arab university Students

Research Based

1. The First Conference on the Problems of Teaching English Language and Literature at Arab Universities 

     at University of Jordan/Amman 

2. Mukattash (1983) divides the problems that Arab learners of English face into 2 types:

       - First, university students continue to make some basic errors in pronunciation, spelling, morphology 

          and syntax

       - Second, they continue to be unable to express themselves "comfortably  and efficiently either when 

           dealing with 'academic topics' or 'common everyday topics

3. Mukattash argues that their major difficulty arises from the fact that they cannot use English correctly 

     and appropriately in and out of the classroom when required to do so.

4. This difficulty is related to the students’ deficiencies in communicative competence and self expression.

    The problem is the results of study plans (on the students) and methods of teaching

5. Most faculty members are not totally happy with the quality of English of the graduates.

6. Zughoul (1987) argues that the competency of English major is scanty (Yarmouk University, Jordan) 

    and concludes that they are “not proficient enough to take any academic work   

7. Rababah (2001) also supports the findings as the students scores on TOEFL indicates low proficiency   

    level of English majors     

  

Causes of Arab Learners’ Weaknesses

1. Weaknesses in English language attributed to various factors (Suleiman, 1983; Mukattash, 1983; Zughoul, 1983; Ibrahim, 1983)

       - Lack of pertinent information on the part of the school

       - School and English language curricula

       - Teaching methodology

       - Lack of the target language environment

       - Lack of learners’ motivation

2. Suleiman argues - lack of fundamental standards in curriculum design, testing and oral communication  

     skills, meager development of productive skills and inadequate teaching/learning strategies at 

      university level, etc  

3. Suleiman (1983:128) claims that school graduates lack the knowledge necessary for them to 

     communicate.  4. Students are not exposed to real-life situations. English is used only as an academic 

      subject.

Motivation

1. Motivation plays an important roles in improving communicative ability.

2. Arab students are instrumentally motivated to learn English and that they are well aware of the utility 

of knowing English (Zughol ).         

Journal published in 2004, Jordan University.

 

Dubai, my next destination with my family

 I will be in Dubai next March inshallah with my kids and wife. i will post my pictures in my flickr once I came back. 

The trip will last for five nights. 

See you in my flickr with tons of pics ,, lolz 

what things do you like most?

Travelling to discover new lands and people is wonderful. Tourists have different purposes when they plan to visit a country regardless those who travel for medical treatment.  In this topic, just share your choice with others. What do you like most when you plan to tour a country?

1. Hiking

2. Sightseeing 

3. Nightlife

4. Shopping 

It is ok to include more than one answer or to arrange your choices according to your priority. 

Functions of Intonation

      The intonation is a controversial issue that has many concepts and can be varied due to the production of speech sound. To understand the term intonation, functions of language and speech act should be both taken into consideration.

Language is often described as having the following four major functions:

        1. A descriptive ( ideational ) function: organizing a speaker's or writer's experience of the world   

           and conveying information which can be stated or denied and in some cases tested.

        2. A social ( interpersonal ) function: used to establish maintain and signal relationship between 

            people.

        3. An expressive function: through which speakers signal information about their opinions,    

            prejudice and past experience.  

       4. A textual function: creating written and spoken texts.

 The Russian-American linguist, Roman Jakobson, listed six other language functions. These six functions can be described as follows:

         1. The referential (denotative, cognitive, representative, informative) function.

         2. The emotive (expressive ) function.

         3. The conative (appellative, imperative, directive) function.

         4. The phatic ( relational or contact) function.

         5. The metalingual (metasemiotic ) function.

         6. The poetic (esthetic or rhetorical ) function.

      Briefly, speech of act theory consists of two kinds of meaning:

               a) propositional ( locutionary) meaning i.e. the literal meaning of the utterance.

               b) illocutionary meaning ( force) i.e. the effect the utterance or written text has on the listener 

                   or reader.

As a part of language components, intonation has four functions. These functions are:

         1. The attitudinal function which expresses the speakers' utterances and releases their emotions,

            Feelings and attitudes. Non-verbal communication plays very important role in intonation. This 

            can be clear in paralinguistic elements such as facial expressions and body movements. The  

            conversational use of spoken language cannot be properly understood unless paralinguistic 

            elements are taken into account.        

         2. Accentual function: the term accentual refers to accent. When it is said that intonation has accentual

            function, it implies that the placement of stress is somewhat determined by intonation.

         3. Grammatical function which is used in three ways:

                  i) The placement of boundaries between phrases, clauses and sentences.

                  ii) The difference between questions and statements.

                  iii) Question-tags.

         4. The discourse function: intonation can signal to the listener what is to be taken as "new vs. 

              given" information, information content or in term of importance.