| Author(s) | Ahmed Abdullah AI-Banyan |
| Affiliation | Assistant Professor, Department of Languages & Translation, College of Arabic, Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh. Saudi Arabia |
| Title | Bilinguals' Beliefs about Arabic and English: Towards |
| Source | Journal of King Saud University. Languages & Translation. Volume 14, No 1. (2002/1422) |
| Abstract | This study concerns folk linguistics. It attempts to discover non-linguists' beliefs/attitudes towards the differences (and/or similarities) between two languages: Arabic (native) and English (second). Second, it will argue for the usefulness of argument analysis as an attitude scale for the study of folk perceptions. Third, it will seek to determine if folk discourse structure is coherent and cohesive ITom the viewpoint of argument analysis. Fourth, this study will investigate if such folk attitudes vary as a result of different proficiency levels in the first and second languages. An interview was carried out and a detailed transcript, provided in appendix A, was made. Two respondents were interviewed. They were Saudi adult male full-time students of English as a second language at the English Language Center of Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing, Michigan (USA). This interview was subjected to a discourse analytic technique which could be called' argument analysis'. The analysis reveals folk perceptions of linguistic and sociolinguistic differences (and similarities) . between Arabic and English. Moreover, it shows that the subjects' different command of English influence folk beliefs. Finally, this study shows that folk discourse structure is organized and coherent and is revealingly investigated by argument analysis. |
