English language

The COVID-19 outbreak disrupted all aspects of people’s lives, including pedagogy and instruction at universities, where its impact was felt globally, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is no exception. This paper discusses and compares the academic results during the conventional mode of learning (spring semester of 2019) and during the online mode of learning (spring semester of 2020), which was throughout the pandemic period. Specifically, the study considers two Saudi groups of fifty students who were enrolled in the Department of Health Information Management and Technology at the University of Hafr Al-batin in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The students’ accumulative marks in six first-year courses in two semesters were analyzed and compared by calculating the passing/failure percentages, descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, standard deviation, variance, maximum, minimum, and range), and the p-value of an inferential t-test. Additionally, the students filled out a six...

This study aims to highlight errors in translating Arabic phrases and expressions into English. It is part of a research that attempts to establish some cultural connections between those translational mistakes and the embedded Arabic and Saudi religious and cultural factors that influence making such errors. To achieve the set goal, the researcher observed many written English signs around the city of Tabuk in a period of two years and then archived and analyzed the various translation mistakes collected from universities' announcements, religious flyers, hospital signs, bill board signs, shops and malls signs, personal signs...etc. The errors were classified into four categories: Singular/Plural, Sentence Structure and Syntax, Word Choice, and Spelling errors. Then a quiz was given to selected female English major students at the University of Tabuk; the quiz contained the same observed mistakes collected earlier. Therefore, the sample of the study was very diverse in its nature of Saudi Arabs and Arabs from other Arab countries that came to live and work in the city of Tabuk; while the students who took the quiz were all of Saudi nationality. It was concluded that the reasons Arab people who publish English translations fail to transfer the Arabic equivalence of English phrases and expressions are mainly due to literal translation and influencing cultural factors that make those people unfamiliar with the use of the right English words in their proper context.

 Abstract-This paper investigates the effects of online exams on students' achievements and the students' perceptions of online and paper exams after taking an experimental online and paper based exams. Carefully designed exams that included various types of questions were attempted by male students in the faculty of computers and information technology and female students in the faculty of Education and Arts. The Moodle Quiz tool was used to design and conduct the online exams. The results of the online exams were compared with similar designed paper based exams. The students' performances in exams were measured in each question type (MCQ, TF, short, essay, numerical, and descriptive). Surprisingly, the mean and standard deviation statistical results were found to be similar between both paper based and online exams in the MCQ, TF, and numerical type of questions; while the essay questions results indicated that the students preferred to answer on paper rather than type on the computer screen. In the followed survey about their experiences with both exams, the students indicated to prefer certain aspects of online exams such as automatic results and feedback.

This paper presents a comparative study of Arabic and English literacy skills and practices for Saudi female university students at their homes and at their school as indicated by the students themselves using literacy questionnaires. The study did not evaluate the proficiency of the students in any aspect of the language such as phonology, vocabulary, or grammar but rather compiled students' answers to the availability of literacy resources in English and in Arabic in their homes/school and the students' practices of literacy in both languages. Data was gathered by distributing two types of questionnaires (Arabic and English) to 200 students of English major at the department of linguistics and translation at the University of Tabuk, which is a government university in Saudi Arabia. Supporting data of cultural and religious influences on literacy was obtained through the researcher's own notes and observations. The purpose of the questionnaires was to investigate mainly: the students' literacy practices and frequency of using Arabic and English and the literacy infrastructure and literacy resources available to the students at their homes and at their school. The students' answers to the questionnaires indicated that most students interacted using mainly Arabic and very little English at their homes and they used some English at their school, which is related to reading their school academic books, doing homework assignments, and having rare English conversations with their classroom teachers.

This research sheds some light on the difficulties faced by Saudi students when writing in the English language by examining specific writing errors committed by the students. Fifty female students in their fourth year of study at the University of Tabuk in the department of languages and translation who were enrolled in the subject of error analysis (a kind of linguistic analysis that emphasizes the errors learners make in a target language) were given a quiz to write approximately one page about each one of three topics: effects of social media on Saudi social life, Saudi marriage customs, and Saudi economy. The quiz was graded and the writing errors were classified into four main categories: grammatical, syntactic, substance, and lexical types following Hubbard et al. (1996) classifications of errors. Then, the number of errors in each category was counted and the corresponding frequency was calculated. The findings of this study show that most frequent types of errors made by th...

The main objective of this paper is to identify the translational errors made by Arab natives. The study is an Arabic to English translational skills' comparison between two Saudi groups in two separate areas of Saudi Arabia: Tabuk and Hafr Al Batin. The study investigated how Arabic cultural, religious, and other factors influenced the production of such errors by the two groups. Each group consisted of selected female students majoring in the English language and attending two regional universities. The students were all of the Saudi nationality and they had obtained their school education within their region before joining a public university. A newly designed quiz was attempted by the students in each group to translate words and phrases categorized into four parts: syntax, spelling, word choice, and singular/plural. It was concluded that lack of English knowledge, unfamiliarity with some English terms, cultural and religious factors, and literal translation are the leading causes of wrong translations. Also, the Tabuk students slightly performed better than Hafr Al Batin students; and this is maybe due to better literacy infrastructure in the city of Tabuk, vibrant cultural diversity in the city with more expatriates working and residing in the region and having more private schools.

The main aim of this study is to highlight the writing errors made by Saudi students majoring in English. The study selected a sample of two groups of female Saudi students residing in two Saudi regions: Tabuk and Hafr Al Batin. The students were requested to write approximately three to four paragraphs about one of three topics related to Saudi Arabia: social media and its effects on Saudi social life, marriage customs in Saudi Arabia, or the economy of Saudi Arabia. In analyzing the collected writing data, the students’ writing errors were identified and classified into four categories: grammar type, syntax type, mechanics type, and lexical type errors. Then, the frequency and error percentages of each subcategory were calculated for both groups. The findings show that both groups produced most errors in the subcategory of spelling followed by tenses subcategory even though the students from the University of Hafr Al Batin made overall higher percentages of errors than the errors’...

Arabs often pronounce many English words wrongly which leads to spelling and writing errors. This paper deals with English pronunciation errors made by two groups of native Saudi Arab speakers. The students in the first group are of English major while the students in the second group are of Arabic major. Generally, Arabic speakers use direct transfer and interference from Arabic in addition to stress shifts in their pronunciation that are not recognized stress patterns in English. Also, there are some sounds in English that have no equivalence in Arabic, which leads to vowel and consonant errors. This study identifies the pronunciation errors made by Saudi students in pronouncing words of problematic nature to Arabs in general. The students in both groups made vowel insertion and confusion, orthography, stress, intonation, errors; but the more trained students in group 1 made less errors than the students in group 2.

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