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THE ROLE OF SHORT VOWELS AND CONTEXT IN THE READING OF ARABIC, COMPREHENSION AND WORD RECOGNITION OF HIGHLY SKILLED READERS

Seraye, Abdullah M (2004) THE ROLE OF SHORT VOWELS AND CONTEXT IN THE READING OF ARABIC, COMPREHENSION AND WORD RECOGNITION OF HIGHLY SKILLED READERS. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of short vowels in reading Arabic for skilled Arab adult readers. Previous studies claimed that the presence of short vowels (and diacritics) has a facilitative role in the reading of Arabic. That is, adding short vowels to the consonants facilitates the reading comprehension and reading accuracy of both children and skilled adult Arab readers. Further, those studies claimed that the absence of short vowels (and diacritics) and context makes reading Arabic impossible. But these studies did not manipulate the short vowels and diacritics to the degree that would isolate the short vowels effect. Nor did they take into account the level of reading involved: text, sentence, and word. That is, on a text level, assessing the role of short vowels should take into account the text level in terms of word frequency; on a sentence level, the structure of the sentence- garden-path versus non-garden-path-; and finally, on a word level the type of word, homographic versus nonhomographic. Thus, the study described in the following pages was designed with three tasks to assess the role of short vowels in relation to each level: the text frequency, the garden-path structure, and the homography aspect of the word. In general, the results showed that the presence or absence of short vowels and diacritics in combination do not affect the reading process, comprehension, and accuracy of skilled adult Arab readers. However, only in a word-naming task, the absence of short vowels and context prevented the skilled adult Arab reader from choosing the right form of the heterophonic homographic word. Further, according to the findings, at the absence of short vowels and diacritics in combination, the role of context in Arabic is still limited to the heterophonic homographic words. In sum, the results demonstrated that the only variable that affects the reading process of Adult Arab skilled readers is the word frequency. Justification for such effects and recommendations for pedagogical purposes and future research are suggested.


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Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Seraye, Abdullah Mseraye@hotmail.com
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Committee ChairHartman, Douglas Kdouglas.hartman@uconn.edu
Committee MemberPerfetti, Charlesperfetti@pitt.eduPERFETTI
Committee MemberBeck, Isabelibeck@pitt.eduIBECK
Committee MemberPingel, Luisepingel@pitt.eduPINGEL
Committee MemberBean, Ritaritabean@pitt.eduRITABEAN
Date: 17 December 2004
Date Type: Completion
Defense Date: 12 July 2004
Approval Date: 17 December 2004
Submission Date: 28 November 2004
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: School of Education > Instruction and Learning
Degree: PhD - Doctor of Philosophy
Thesis Type: Doctoral Dissertation
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: Arabic short vowels; diacretics; reading accuracy
Other ID: http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-11282004-225248/, etd-11282004-225248
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2011 20:06
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2016 13:52
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9821

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