Accepted for Publication

Circumlocution: A Means of Developing Strategic Competence & Fluency among L2 Learners

Published in the Proceedings of Languages and Translation: Realities and Aspirations - 10-12 April, 2005 at Imam University in Riyadh.

Abstract:

 This article discusses the idea that teaching of circumlocution strategy plays an important role in the development of strategic competence and fluency. It describes a communication strategy-teaching programme for English language learners. The programme aims at raising the learners’ awareness toward the use of circumlocution. Accordingly, it presents various communicative activities involving this strategy, whose aim is to help L2 learners solve their communication problems, communicate with ease and build up their confidence in communicating in the target language.

Accepted for publication in Ages: Journal of Archaeological and Historical Studies. July 2007.

The Spread of Arabic: September 11^th  vs. the Power of Language

Ghaleb Ahmed Rabab’ah       &       Muhammad Raji Zughoul

University of Jordan                    Yarmouk University

Department of English            Department of English

     Jordan                                           Jordan

  The spread of Arabic has not received due attention in modern sociolinguistic studies till after the events of September 11 in the US.  This paper examines the spread of Arabic from a historical and a linguistic perspective, showing very briefly how Arabic moved with the Islamic conquest outside the Arabian Peninsula supplanting older imperial and local languages in Asia, Africa and parts of Europe. The paper tries to delineate the intimate relationship between Arabic and Islam showing how the two are intertwined, and how Arabic spread not only as a language of the Islamic empire in its different historical periods, but as the language of the Qur’an, the holy Book of Islam. It shows how Arabic influenced other European languages and, more importantly, how its wealth of lexicon contributed to enriching other non-Arab Muslim languages like Urdu, Persian and Pashto and how the Arabic script was used to write other non-Arab Muslim languages. There has been a strong, renewed interest in Arabic and Islam in the West, especially after the events of September11. The paper tries to show the “linguistic deficiencies” in the US as described by the American press, and to address the rising interest in learning and using Arabic in different US universities, educational and training facilities. The paper concludes that the spread of Arabic is not the result of the September 11 events, but is due to the fact that it is the language of the Qur’an.