Negative yes-no (polar) questions in Colloquial Arabic (CA) are formed by intonation without adding yes-no question particles, in which case, a statement is uttered with a rising intonation, whether this polar question is negative or affirmative. This case is more common in CA than written MSA. Sometimes, the same negative polar question is…

Results of surveys with a sample of EFL and translation instructors and students showed that many instructors feel that their role is limited to preparing the teaching material, in-class instruction, writing exams, grading assignments and other paperwork. They declared that students have many academic problems in EFL and translation and…

Polysemes are words that have multiple meanings. They exist in all languages as in Arabic [Arabic characters] and English "base," "plant," "system," "present," "left." A sample of Arabic and English polyseme translation errors was collected from homework-assignments and exams to explore the…

This study investigates grade inflation in 127 language, linguistics, translation, education, and computer courses taught at some Saudi universities before, during and after the Pandemic. Grades obtained from some instructors for courses taught over 8 semesters were analyzed. It was found that between 20% 65% chose a pass/no-grade results, the…

Students majoring in translation at the College of Languages and Translation take a stylistics course (3 hours per week) in the 5th semester of the translation program. The course aims to introduce students to the stylistic features of different genres in English such as journalese, advertisements, commercial, scientific, and legal texts. The…

English and Arabic have different types of collocations, i.e., groups of words that go together. This study aims to explore the difficulties that Saudi undergraduate student-translators have in translating English word + preposition collocations such as verb + preposition, noun + preposition, and adjective + preposition collocations to Arabic. A…

This study aimed to explore whether educated Arabs prefer to read paper or digital materials and which reading technologies and applications they use. The sample consisted of 272 educated Arabs (81% males and 19% females) who are Twitter users, who gave 437 responses to questions, hashtags and threads asking, "which digital media and digital…

This article gives examples of mobile vocabulary apps (MVAs) that can be downloaded from the Google Play or Apple App Stores and used as extension activities or a supplement to in-class vocabulary instruction in EFL such as English word study, advanced English vocabulary, test your English vocabulary, English vocabulary level I, II & III, 1000…

A class blog was created and used as a supplement to in-class EFL writing instruction for freshman students. Topics that focused on current global events such as Ramadan in Islamic countries, the Tsunami in Japan, the Royal wedding, and refugees in Europe were posted by the instructor. The students were required to look for videos, photos or…

This study investigates how emergency practicum was carried out during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the past two years (Spring 2020 to Sprin 2022) in Saudi Arabia. Results of surveys with a sample of instructors from Languages, Translation, Literature, Linguistics, Education and Computer Science Departments at a sample of universities in Saudi Arabia…

I used Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, Nicenet and RCampus in teaching reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar courses to freshman students as a supplement to in-class instruction that depended on the textbook. In each online course, there was a student leader. Student leaders had the highest posts and responses (between 50-150 posts) and the highest…

This study investigates interpreting directionality and interpreting competence of undergraduate interpreting students. It tried to answer the following questions: (i) Is there a significant difference between the beginners and advanced students' skills in Liaison interpreting from English to Arabic and Arabic to English, with Arabic as their L1…

Almost every upper- and middle-class family in Saudi Arabia has a foreign housemaid who does the housework and takes care of the children. This study aims to find out whether foreign housemaids have an impact on children's acquisition of Arabic, the children's first language. Surveys with 300 mothers with children under the age of six revealed…

In an era where the English language has become dominant in all fields and is the prevailing language worldwide, many Arab parents and intellectuals are wondering about the optimal age to start teaching their children English. Should they speak to their children in English at an early age? Should they enrol their children in a pre-school that…

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, there was a sudden transition from face-to-face to distance learning (DL) at Saudi schools and universities. 55% of students surveyed were dissatisfied with DL, online communication and had difficulty understanding the course material. Students showed low self-efficacy, engagement and motivation, a negative role and…