Language Research Center

  On February 19, 2020, there was a presentation titled 'Simultaneous Interpreting' by two Master of Arts in Translation program students named Wafa Al-Qahtani and Raneem Riadh at a seminar organized by the Language Research Center.   Wafa and Raneem first defined 'Interpreting', followed by a detailed explanation of three modes of interpretation. "Interpreting is the transfer of one spoken or signed language into another", said the presenters. They went on further to say that it was IMMEDIACY rather than ORALITY that set 'interpreting' apart from 'translation' because orality usually EXCLUDES 'signed language'.   Simultaneous Interpretation (SI), they said, is the one in which the interpreter listens and renders the entire message in the target language at the same time the speaker is talking. They also talked about some more interesting sub-types of interpretation, such as chuchotage, bidule, bimodal interpreting, and so on. They shed light on the fact that the goal for simultaneous interpreting is NOT to paraphrase but to convey the exact message uttered in the source language.   Wafa and Raneem then talked about how SI originated, and how it is the mode officially adopted at large global organizations like the UN, EU, etc. They stated the working environment for simultaneous interpreters. In a sound-proof booth with direct view onto the conference room, the interpreter listens to a speaker through earphones and simultaneously transmits the message in another language through a microphone to the listeners' room, they added.   Wafa and Raneem, while explaining its salient features, talked about how it saves time and ensures continuity with less distraction and more concentration. They brought to light the skills a simultaneous interpreter must possess, i.e., amazing language skills, specialized knowledge, and cultural competence.   Décalage, EVS (lag time) and Word Order, the main focus of attention of the seminar, were dealt with separately, saying defining the former as the period of time between the source text input and the interpreter's target text. One important issue is that the interpreter has to make a decision on the size of units or chunks he deems suitable to form a meaningful unit to start with, when to start, when to chunk, when to wait or stall and when to start again. In relation to word order as a critical issue in simultaneous interpreting, they said, "Awkward word order is ubiquitous. The Europeans' focus of interest has been on the difficulty of putting German, Russian, Chinese or Japanese into English or French. In these source languages, a verb or predicate which are traditionally seen as the heart of the sentence's meaning and usually come early in English, may be delayed until the end". They brought this issue to Arabic. Arabic deploying VSO order is considered very hard to be interpreted alongside English. Translating an English noun phrase with one noun preceded by 5 or more adjectives into Arabic must start with the noun first and then it lists the adjectives. This poses a challenge and the interpreter's memory is the yardstick on which SI success depends. The example is elucidated by a native, shady, ornamental, high, massive, mature, mighty tree.   The seminar was informative, interactive, and an overall success. The faculty members and the MA students at the Graigor campus also participated in the seminar. Concluding the seminar, Language Research Center Director, Dr. Ismail Alrefaai, thanked the participants and encouraged all other MA students to participate and follow suit. Dr. Eyhab Bader Eddin, swelling with great pride, thanked them for their resourceful content, and for their stamina and courage to have taken to the stage. Date: 2/20/2020 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Ms. Sharmin Siddiqui and Ms. Sufia Sultana delivered a presentation titled Creating Future Leaders by Teachers as Core Professionals at a seminar organized by the Language Research Center on February 12, 2020. Their presentation emphasized the importance of building leadership among teachers and transferring leadership attributes to students of the Bachelor of Arts in English program.   The session began with a lead-in task in which the participants were asked to write names of their high school teachers. Ms. Siddiqui and Ms. Sultana focused on the fact that the teachers who had created a positive impression among their students were in general well remembered.   They pointed up leadership among teachers by quoting Richard Dufour who termed teaching profession as the creator of all other professions. They also quoted Wendell Willkie, J.F. Kennedy, Henry Adams and Alexander the Great while talking about the correlation between leadership and learning.   The main points Ms. Siddiqui and Ms. Sultana’s presentation covered were leadership qualities a teacher should possess, leadership styles, the demonstration of leadership in class, teaching leadership skills, and barriers to developing teacher leadership. They highlighted the combination of leadership qualities great teachers possess, and how they can train up the learners to achieve those leadership attributes that they can apply in their lives and profession.   The presentation was informative, interactive and a great success. It is worth mentioning that Graigor male campus also participated in the seminar through video conferencing.   Date: 2/15/2020 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Adel Bahameed spoke on the subject of Translating Songs and Poems at a seminar organized by the Language Research Center for the Bachelor of Arts in English program on January 29, 2020. The presentation centered on the challenges involved in translating songs and poems.   The main objective of his research, Dr. Bahameed says, was to refresh translation studies with regard to the possibility of translating songs and poems.   Dr. Bahameed, based on his research, describes 'translating songs and poems' as a challenging task. "There has been a long controversy over whether songs and poems can be really translated or not", states Dr. Bahameed. He mentions a famous Arab singer Abu Bakr Salem and a famous Arab poet Hussein Al-Mihdar and how their works have been translated. While translating a song, he adds, the translator must pay attention to rhythm, rhyme, prosody, music and the culture. Some translators, while translating, only focus on forms, and some, on the other hand, give priority to content over form. He states that the translator should preferably be a poet so that he/she can appreciate the poetic text in hand.   Dr. Adel Bahameed concluded that Arabic poems are translatable, but the translation process is complicated. However, Arabic songs are untranslatable because of the extra dimension of music, which is beyond the translator's control.   The seminar was very interactive, engaging, and a great success. It is worth mentioning that King Abdullah Road Campus also attended the seminar. Date: 1/30/2020 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Ahlullah Siddiqui, Bachelor of Arts in English program, delivered a presentation titled Interpretive Reading at the seminar organized by the Language Research Center on November 27, 2019. The presentation was based on a research paper titled "Interpretive reading as a strategy to construct meaning in EFL Reading Comprehension: A case study at KKU EFL Classroom ", conducted by Dr. Ahmad Ismail Assiri and Dr. Ahlullah Siddiqui.   The presentation focused on how effective interpretive reading is in reading comprehension. Dr. Siddiqui highlighted some previous studies conducted by Alsamadini (2009), Al-Jarf (2007), Carrell (1989) and Cooper (1984). The studies, he stated, emphasized the positive correlation between language competence and being able to understand written texts, and how reading helps in vocabulary building.   Dr. Siddiqui related that interpretive reading is the effective communication of thoughts and or feelings of an author to the listener. He then stated the research objectives: to determine whether interpretive reading has a significant effect on students' reading comprehension; to investigate the efficacy of interpretive reading in employing various types of texts; to compare the effect of interpretive reading to that of silent reading and reading aloud respectively; and to suggest ways in which teacher can go about using interpretive reading in their teaching. He, while explaining the methodology, also compared the statistical data of the control group and the experimental group. Finally, he explained in detail the research outcomes. Two video clips were also played, which demonstrated two examples of interpretive reading.   The seminar was very interactive and a great success. It is worth mentioning that the King Abdullah Road Campus also attended the seminar. Date: 11/30/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Amal Metwally delivered a presentation titled 'Linguistic Markers of Metaphor in the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān towards a Computational Identification' that was based on her Ph.D. thesis at a seminar organized by the Language Research Center on November 20, 2019.   Her study, she said, attempted to establish the appropriate criteria for the computational identification of metaphors, and propose computer software for identifying metaphor candidates in the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān. The study was based on Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) cognitive theory of metaphor, Goatly's (1997) research on metaphor in the Qur'ān, and computational studies of metaphor in general. It also focused on the early research by Arab rhetoricians and grammarians on metaphor.   Dr. Metwally's study explored linguistic markers of metaphorical candidates and identified linguistic markers of lexical items that were likely to be metaphorical. It also explored the use of such markers to create a computer application that could identify metaphors in the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān in the selected Sūrahs (Sūrat Hūd, Sūrat Yūsuf, and Sūrat Ar-Rā'd). She then explained in detail the corpus used, the methodology adopted in her study, and the overall structure of her research. Dr. Metwally then explained the cognitive theory of conceptual metaphor and computational linguistics.   Dr. Metwally's study concluded that it represented a novel direction for computational linguistics research on metaphor. Computer software for processing an entire corpus (selected Sūrahs from the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān) that could yield a list of potential metaphors would thus seem to be a welcome addition to the set of tools currently available to metaphor analysts.   The seminar was very interactive and a notable success. It is worth mentioning that Al-Samer Women’s College and the main campus for the Bachelor of Arts in English program also attended the seminar via teleconference.   Date: 11/21/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Two MA students named Raneem Riadh and Amani Hadi delivered a presentation titled 'Dyslexia as a Language Disorder', at the seminar organized by the Language Research Center on November 13, 2019. Raneem and Amani's presentation covered dyslexia facts, its history, the causes, the symptoms, and its treatment.   They began their presentation with some other disabilities related to learning, such as dysgraphia and dyscalculia, showing a few samples of language work done by those afflicted with same. It was noted that 'dyslexia' comes from the Greek words 'dys', meaning difficulty, and 'lexia', meaning language. Dyslexia is generally defined as a specific learning disability in basic reading skills and spelling, which is neurobiological in origin. While talking about the facts, they added that this is a common reading disorder and therefore the most common cause of reading, spelling and writing difficulties.   They mentioned its discovery in 1877 by a German neurologist Adoff Kussmaul. They also mentioned some famously successful people (Piccaso, Whoopi Goldberg, Muhammad Ali, Steven Spielberg and Cher) who had suffered from dyslexia.   The seminar was informative, interactive, and an overall success. The faculty members and the MA students at the main campus also participated in the seminar. Date: 11/13/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Khairiya Abudadi conducted a workshop on Rbrul Statistics, at the seminar organized by the Language Research Center, FLT of King Khalid University, on October 30, 2019.   Rbrul Statistics, Abudadi said, is a user-friendly piece of software that allows us to calculate statistical data very easily. She first focused on the application’s installation. After that, she talked about various features of Rbrul Statistics and its application to teaching and assessment in different department courses. She also mentioned how useful the application had been during her Ph.D.   She concluded that Rbrul Statistics is a very useful piece of software that helps with data analysis and complicated statistical calculation. She recommended that we all try to use it for statistical analysis.   The workshop was informative and an overall success. Graigor campus also participated in the workshop. Date: 10/30/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Ms. Amatul Hafeez Alvi spoke on the subject of 'Mastering the Skills of Writing Research Manuscripts', at a seminar organized by the Language Research Center on October 23, 2019.   Alvi began her session with the main objectives of her presentation. She focused on the importance of publishing research papers, what makes a successful writer, how to choose a journal, the process of writing, submission and issues related to revision, acceptance and rejection.   She emphasized the fact that all a writer needs is 'zeal'. She discussed in detail some other related issues, such as having academic experience with no publications, little exposure to research activities, university demands, demotivation after rejection, lack of language skills, et cetera.   Alvi also spoke about the qualities of good writing. She encouraged writers not to hesitate or haste and to select a suitable publication outlet, ensure clarity, monitor the process and collaborate when writing a research article.   Alvi concluded that a researcher should keep on trying to get their work published. A researcher should not be demoralized after being rejected.   The seminar was a great success and raised awareness on the significance of improving skills in pursuit of research publication. It is worth mentioning that the women's college at King Abdullah Road, Al-Samer Campus, and the main campus attended the seminar in-person or via teleseminar. Date: 10/24/2019 Source: Faculty of Languages and Translation

  Mohammad Adil conducted a workshop entitled 'Practising Professionalism in EFL Teaching', which was organized by the Language Research Center on October 2, 2019. The workshop was centered on effective classroom and test administration practices. The workshop comprised some input sessions and brainstorming tasks.   The workshop began with a warm-up task that covered good classroom practices. This task fully engaged the participants by activating their existing knowledge of classroom practices.   Mohammad Adil started his input session by discussing classroom practices that emphasized 'Principled Eclecticism' and the learner-centered approach to teaching. He explained that the teaching method might vary according to learners' needs and the content of teaching. A well-designed lesson plan could make the entire lesson well-organized, he said, while talking about lesson plan stages and shapes.   Adil also discussed effective whiteboard use in class that could make a lesson engaging, effective, and interesting. "Successful whiteboard use can change the entire classroom environment," stated Adil while demonstrating various ways to use a whiteboard.   Mohammad Adil finished his session with significant issues related to testing. He highlighted what to do before designing a test while designing a test and after the test is finalized. The key concepts covered were the importance of exam training for students, the clarity of instructions in tests, and meeting the testing criteria.   During the input sessions, there were a few brainstorming tasks that engaged the participants and made the whole session interactive.   The workshop was a great success and raised awareness of successful and professional English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom practices among the participants.   Please click here to browse the booklet used in the workshop. Date: 10-2-2019 Source: Faculty of Languages and Translation Photography: Dr. Justin Sfariac and Jahangir Alam

  The 14th Annual Research Day, under the supervision of Dr. Ismail Al-Refaai, Director of the Language Research Center, was held on April 03, 2019 at King Khalid University.   This event successfully achieved the 2nd position according to the evaluation made by the Deanship of Scientific Research, King Khalid University.   This success was the result of dedicated efforts made the members of the organizing committee led by Dr. Abdullah Al-Melhi, Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Translation and Dr. Ismail Al-Refaai. The committee members included Dr. Sayed Rashid Shah, Javed Ahmed, Mohammad Adil, Azaad Hayat, Khalid Abdullah Al-Asmari, Faisal Alfadhil, Mohammad Jaber, Salahud Din Abdul Rab, Md. Mahmudul Haque, Amal Abdelsattar Metwally, and Ghada Al-Amri.   In total, there were 19 oral presentations and 28 poster displays. Date: 4/8/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique