Language Research Center

  Dr. Barbara Rumbinas delivered a presentation organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University on February 27, 2019.   Dr. Barbara began her presentation by defining Multimodal Analysis which is actually an inter-disciplinary approach that acknowledges that communicative acts contain more than verbal utterances or written texts. She said communicative acts are meaning-generating events including visual, spoken, gestural, written, and other three-dimensional modes of interaction. The Multimodal Approach to research, she said, examines the communicative interactions of these elements as well as their inter and intra-relationships to reveal, among other things, ideological perspectives and power relations.   The seminar was very informative and a great success. Date: 3/2/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  On February 19, 2019, the Faculty of Languages and Translation held a seminar titled 'Translator's Message'. The seminar was organized by the Language Research Center, and the presenters were Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani and Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani. The presenters are MA students and volunteers for a program also named 'Translator's Message'. The purpose of the seminar was to raise awareness of the group's goals and objectives within the FLT community.   Translator's Message is an initiative organized by Master degree students in Translation at the FLT female campus. It is an all-volunteer group, which is dedicated to providing in-demand translation services to the community. The participants' motivation is based on their deep passion for translation and commitment to civic improvement.  'Translator's Message is primarily a community service volunteer effort. We are an all-volunteer group of specialized translators who have a message to deliver to non-specialists. In short, we are messengers of translation. The objective is to educate communities about the importance of translation services in daily life. In addition, this translation initiative helps the volunteers improve and sharpen their translation skills. Our initiative supports national objectives as set forth in Vision 2030', said Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani. In addition, the translation initiative serves as a conduit between various communities and King Khalid University. This is important as there are many other initiatives involving the university and the public stakeholders in the region.   'Our volunteers visit a variety of different people both within and among different communities. Volunteers often visit secondary schools and high schools. In these settings, the volunteers can encourage young people in their international language studies, and convey both the importance and potential career opportunities involving language', said Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani.   The 'Translator's Message' seminar also focused on the program outcomes they have experienced to date. The presenters expressed that their group is passionate about the benefits of real-world translation. Also, they find that constructive experiences from their volunteer work have made them more confident in practicing their craft. They also expressed their satisfaction in serving members of the public. The presenters made a call to action for additional volunteers in the program. As part of this request, Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani and Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani shared the group's current work plan with the attendees.   Please note that this is a follow-up regarding the 'Translator's Message' initiative. For more information, please click here. Volunteers are very much needed, and any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Please contact 'Translator's Message' on their Twitter handle @translatorsKKU. Date: 2/25/2019 Source:  Amal Metwally & Tanzina Halim, Scientific Research Committee – Female Campus

  On February 19, 2019, the Faculty of Languages and Translation held a seminar titled 'Translator's Message'. The seminar was organized by the Language Research Center, and the presenters were Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani and Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani. The presenters are MA students and volunteers for a program also named 'Translator's Message'. The purpose of the seminar was to raise awareness of the group's goals and objectives within the FLT community.   Translator's Message is an initiative organized by Master degree students in Translation at the FLT female campus. It is an all-volunteer group, which is dedicated to providing in-demand translation services to the community. The participants' motivation is based on their deep passion for translation and commitment to civic improvement.  'Translator's Message is primarily a community service volunteer effort. We are an all-volunteer group of specialized translators who have a message to deliver to non-specialists. In short, we are messengers of translation. The objective is to educate communities about the importance of translation services in daily life. In addition, this translation initiative helps the volunteers improve and sharpen their translation skills. Our initiative supports national objectives as set forth in Vision 2030', said Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani. In addition, the translation initiative serves as a conduit between various communities and King Khalid University. This is important as there are many other initiatives involving the university and the public stakeholders in the region.   'Our volunteers visit a variety of different people both within and among different communities. Volunteers often visit secondary schools and high schools. In these settings, the volunteers can encourage young people in their international language studies, and convey both the importance and potential career opportunities involving language', said Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani.   The 'Translator's Message' seminar also focused on the program outcomes they have experienced to date. The presenters expressed that their group is passionate about the benefits of real-world translation. Also, they find that constructive experiences from their volunteer work have made them more confident in practicing their craft. They also expressed their satisfaction in serving members of the public. The presenters made a call to action for additional volunteers in the program. As part of this request, Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani and Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani shared the group's current work plan with the attendees.   Please note that this is a follow-up regarding the 'Translator's Message' initiative. For more information, please click here. Volunteers are very much needed, and any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Please contact 'Translator's Message' on their Twitter handle @translatorsKKU. Date: 2/25/2019 Source:  Amal Metwally & Tanzina Halim, Scientific Research Committee – Female Campus

  Dr. Hasan Jaashan introduced his book about Stylistics at the seminar held on February 13, 2019, which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University. He started his presentation by showing the content of his book.   Dr. Jaashan, while highlighting the content of the book, spoke in detail about the relation between linguistics and literature, and what function stylistics has in understanding literature. He emphasized the significance of clear understanding of linguistics in appreciating literature, which, he added, involves perceiving the beauty of thoughts and expressions. He highlighted the fact that every writer has his or her honest and unique style of writing.   Dr. Jaashan also explained the features of the language of literature. Dr. Jaashan focused on his phonological and stylistic analysis of various literary texts.   The seminar was informative, interactive and a great success. Date: 2/13/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Hasan Jaashan introduced his book about Stylistics at the seminar held on February 13, 2019, which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University. He started his presentation by showing the content of his book.   Dr. Jaashan, while highlighting the content of the book, spoke in detail about the relation between linguistics and literature, and what function stylistics has in understanding literature. He emphasized the significance of clear understanding of linguistics in appreciating literature, which, he added, involves perceiving the beauty of thoughts and expressions. He highlighted the fact that every writer has his or her honest and unique style of writing.   Dr. Jaashan also explained the features of the language of literature. Dr. Jaashan focused on his phonological and stylistic analysis of various literary texts.   The seminar was informative, interactive and a great success. Date: 2/13/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Associate Professor Michael Hadzantonis conducted a workshop on Linguistic Anthropological facets of language selection, which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University, on January 16, 2019. Here, the language of study was Greek, following a study and data collection in Athens, Greece in 2012.    The central premise of the study followed on from work by Duranti, which exposed that, in Italian, the act of dropping or including a subject pronoun constituent in/from any spoken construction, will alter the pragmatics of the sentence. In the Italian case, including the unnecessary subject pronoun will effect positive conceptions by speakers toward the referent. However, in the case of the Greek context, Hadzantonis argues that the opposite was found to be true. This metapragmatic conditioning of syntax aligns with work by Michael Silverstein in the 1980s, who discusses the importance of 'reference' in syntactic constituents, so to effect either deliberate or nondeliberate positioning of the subject referent, by the speaker.        This work constitutes the first part in introducing discourse analytic techniques in Linguistic Anthropology, and sits within a continual line of talks in the area of Research methods in Linguistic Anthropology, by Hadzantonis. Date: 1/30/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Associate Professor Michael Hadzantonis conducted a workshop on Linguistic Anthropological facets of language selection, which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University, on January 16, 2019. Here, the language of study was Greek, following a study and data collection in Athens, Greece in 2012.    The central premise of the study followed on from work by Duranti, which exposed that, in Italian, the act of dropping or including a subject pronoun constituent in/from any spoken construction, will alter the pragmatics of the sentence. In the Italian case, including the unnecessary subject pronoun will effect positive conceptions by speakers toward the referent. However, in the case of the Greek context, Hadzantonis argues that the opposite was found to be true. This metapragmatic conditioning of syntax aligns with work by Michael Silverstein in the 1980s, who discusses the importance of 'reference' in syntactic constituents, so to effect either deliberate or nondeliberate positioning of the subject referent, by the speaker.        This work constitutes the first part in introducing discourse analytic techniques in Linguistic Anthropology, and sits within a continual line of talks in the area of Research methods in Linguistic Anthropology, by Hadzantonis. Date: 1/30/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

Prof. Hamad Al Dosari delivered a presentation titled Developing and Assessing the Relationship between Intercultural Communication Competence and Intercultural Sensitivity in the EFL Classroom at a Language Research Center seminar held on October 31, 2018. His presentation is about a paper he is going to present at the 24th Annual International Conference of the Bolivian English Teachers Association. Prof. Dosari first explained Communicative Competence in detail. He emphasized that it involves intercultural competence and intercultural sensitivity. Learning should include verbal communication such as conversational styles in addition to nonverbal communication such as gestures and body language which is behavior that adds to spoken or written language, said Prof. Dosari while quoting Arévalo-Guerrero. Some researchers, he added, suggested that "intercultural competence, intercultural communicative competence, intercultural sensitivity, and cross-culture adaptation" can be used interchangeably. In his study, he used two instruments – the Intercultural Communication Competence Survey by Aldosari & Mekheimer (2018) and the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) of Chen and Starosta (2000). Prof. Dosari, based on his research findings, concluded that intercultural communication competence and intercultural sensitivity could be achieved when the basic knowledge, skills, motivation, awareness, behaviors, and attitudes towards intercultural competence are focused on in the foreign language curriculum. He emphasized that foreign language curriculum should be integrated into cultural education that would show differences and similarities between the native cultures of the FL learners and the target cultures of the foreign language. The seminar was an overall success. Date: 11/1/2018 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique Multimedia Source: Mohammed Jabir

Prof. Hamad Al Dosari delivered a presentation titled Developing and Assessing the Relationship between Intercultural Communication Competence and Intercultural Sensitivity in the EFL Classroom at a Language Research Center seminar held on October 31, 2018. His presentation is about a paper he is going to present at the 24th Annual International Conference of the Bolivian English Teachers Association. Prof. Dosari first explained Communicative Competence in detail. He emphasized that it involves intercultural competence and intercultural sensitivity. Learning should include verbal communication such as conversational styles in addition to nonverbal communication such as gestures and body language which is behavior that adds to spoken or written language, said Prof. Dosari while quoting Arévalo-Guerrero. Some researchers, he added, suggested that "intercultural competence, intercultural communicative competence, intercultural sensitivity, and cross-culture adaptation" can be used interchangeably. In his study, he used two instruments – the Intercultural Communication Competence Survey by Aldosari & Mekheimer (2018) and the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) of Chen and Starosta (2000). Prof. Dosari, based on his research findings, concluded that intercultural communication competence and intercultural sensitivity could be achieved when the basic knowledge, skills, motivation, awareness, behaviors, and attitudes towards intercultural competence are focused on in the foreign language curriculum. He emphasized that foreign language curriculum should be integrated into cultural education that would show differences and similarities between the native cultures of the FL learners and the target cultures of the foreign language. The seminar was an overall success. Date: 11/1/2018 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique Multimedia Source: Mohammed Jabir

Dr. Eyhab Bader Eddin delivered a presentation titled 'Multiplicity of Different English Functional Semantic Realizations of the Translation of the Arabic Preposition ب' at a seminar organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University held on October 10, 2018. His presentation was about his research on a particular Arabic preposition, namely ب and its diversity of meaning when translated into English. The seminar, originally a published paper in a refereed specialized journal, throws a spotlight at an uncharted territory in the field of translation and grammatical analysis, taking the fact that the semantic functions of the preposition ب in Arabic have been the cynosure of all linguists’ and translators’ eyes for decades as the point of departure. The different realizations in English of the same preposition in Arabic are meant to enrich translators’ and linguists’ appreciation and critical understanding of the different semantic functions of the preposition ب. Failure to correctly understand the semantic functions inherent in the preposition ب in different contexts definitely washes away meaning, and causes translators to bog down in unanswered questions pertaining to the exact meaning intended. Dr. Bader Eddin first compared Arabic parts of speech with English ones. The English word class of ‘nouns’ covers in Arabic the word classes of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, he exemplified. Particles in Arabic, referred to as حروف, can be further divided into two types of particles, namely حروف مبنى (alphabetical letters) and حروف معنى (prepositions), he added. He went further to say that the tri-classification of Arabic parts of speech does not mean that English has more parts of speech than Arabic does. It is noticed that the semantic behavior, expressed by بـ in Arabic is richer than that in English, and thus cannot always be transferred through a one-to-one correspondence into English. The seemingly same ب in Arabic can be said to be an overloaded preposition in Arabic that no one particular preposition can be predicted in English. This linguistic phenomenon is context-bound in that the same preposition ب behaves semantically different, and thus cannot be dealt with according to watertight criteria predictably. In Arabic, particles are divided into ‘effective or operative’ and ‘passive’ عامل وعاطل. By the former, we mean that their occurrence before the noun it accompanies brings about what is grammatically known as ‘declension’ الإعراب. This means the last morpheme or inflection of the word carries a marker (diacritic mark) showing its grammatical case and category. Such particles, depending on what particles are used, may make the word they precede in the nominative, accusative, dative or apocope case, that is حالة الرفع أو النصب أو الجر أو الجزم respectively. Prepositions are considered one type of ‘effective or operative particles’ as they transform the noun following them into the dative case. Dr. Bader Eddin also explained in detail the various types of Arabic preposition ب their semantic functions and possible English realization. He particularly adduced evidence from the Holy Qur'an for this research out of the firm belief that the Holy Qur'an is the model of linguistic excellence whose style is described as ‘sui generis’. He highlighted the fact that one preposition in Arabic can be realized differently in English. His research, he believed, would enrich translators’ and linguists’ critical understanding of different semantic functions of the preposition. Some of the semantic functions carried by the preposition ب are ‘physical contact, instrument, transitivity, causal, substitution, oath administering, etc. A volley of questions were posed at the end, and answers were provided. You may have a look at the PowerPoint presentation by clicking here. It is worth mentioning that the King Abdullah Road campus attended the seminar online. The seminar was very informative and overall successful. Date: 10/10/2018 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique Multimedia Source: Mohammed Jabir