The Effects Of A Self-Evaluation Multimedia Courseware On Learning Restricted Arabic Consonants Among Non-Arabic Speakers : A Case Study
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Date
2016-03
Authors
Al Omari, Mohammed Shukri
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
The current study focuses on the effects of self-evaluation multimedia courseware in learning the pronunciation of the Restricted Arabic Consonants (RACs) by Non Arabic Speakers (NASs). Studies showed that NASs face difficulties and cannot pronounce the RACs properly when they learn Arabic language. The problem is due to different reasons including the RACs are not available in the English language, and the need to learn how to use new parts of the learner’s articulation system to produce the new sound which are not available in the learner’s mother tongue. This research uses a case study approach with four adult NAS learners from a government college in the United Arab Emirates and they were selected randomly from different regions of the world. The four learners used a self-learning with a self-evaluation approach and a specially developed multimedia courseware to teach themselves how to pronounce the RACs correctly or in acceptable manner. The learners had a pretest to evaluate their levels in the pronunciation of the RACs before starting the learning process. Learners recorded all their learning activities by using the Camtasia Studio software and were post-tested after completing their training. The collected data in the form of pretest, posttest, recorded videos and the interviews were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The results showed that the developed multimedia courseware with the self-evaluation approach was effective, useful and had an excellent improvement in the learners’ RACs pronunciation levels. The findings also indicate the different patterns and strategies used by the learners, and how their background and experiences affected their learning strategies. In addition, it also showed the effect of the learner’s mother tongue on learning the RACs and how the different mother tongues can affect the difficulty level of learning the correct pronunciation of RACs. The results of this work may be generalized to other adult learners who want to learn the Arabic language as a second language in the 17 different campuses of the government college in the United Arab Emirates. The findings may also be generalized to any adult who wants to learn the proper or acceptable way of pronouncing the RACs.
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Keywords
Self-evaluation