Acquisition of Word Form Among Arab Learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Literature Review 5
Vocabulary Knowledge 5
The Different Aspects of Knowing a Word 6
The Importance of Knowing the Written Form of a Word 7
The Relationship between Written and Spoken Form 9
The Acquisition of English Spelling 9
Consonants in English Spelling 10
Vowels in English Spelling 11
The Special Case of Arab Learners of EFL 13
Purpose of the Study 20
Research Hypotheses 21
Methodology 22
Participants 22
Research design 22
Instruments 22
Data Collection and Analysis 23
Reflection 24
Limitations of the Study 24
Results 25
Dispersion indices test scores for the entire sample 25
Discussion 30
Vowel Blindness in Arab Israeli young students 30
The difference between proficient and less proficient students 32
Conclusions 32
Summary and recommendations 34
References 35
Introduction
This study is concerned with the acquisition and production of orthographical word-form among Arab learners of EFL. Specifically, it addresses learners’ accuracy in handling vowels in reading and writing.
Spelling poses considerable difficulty for Arab learners (Al-Momani, 2019). Relatively simple words, such as teacher, beautiful, chair and many others were often misspelt, by students also in the more advanced streams. Although, spelling errors represented a wide variety of categories, many involved omission or misplacement of vowels (Qasem, 2020).
In light of Arab learners’ observed problems in mastering word forms in English on the one hand, and lack of systematic attention to word form in teaching English on the other, this study focuses on the acquisition of word form by Arab learners of EFL. The literature about the specific difficulty faced by Arab learners in handling English vowels has intrigued me to investigate this particular area, in hopes of gaining insights which may help both teachers and learners of English in my community. The thinking is that if we uncover some of the problems that our learners face, we will be able to target them in our teaching.
אתר סמינריון מהווה פלטפורמה למכירה ולקנייה של עבודות אקדמיות איכותיות בין סטודנטים. באתר תוכלו למצוא עבודות אקדמיות במגוון תחומים ובמגוון סוגים החל מתרגילים דרך סמינריונים ועד עבודות תזה. באתר תוכלו למכור את העבודות שלכם לסטודנטים אחרים ולהרוויח עליהן כסף.
