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The Development of Grapho-Phonemic Representations among Native Hebrew Speakers Learning Arabic as a Foreign Language

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Handbook of Arabic Literacy

Part of the book series: Literacy Studies ((LITS,volume 9))

Abstract

This chapter addresses the development of grapho-phonemic representations in Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) among native Hebrew-speaking pupils (HL1) based on two studies. The first study employed both quantitative and qualitative analyses of spelling errors among eighth graders during the second year of formal exposure to Standard Arabic. Findings indicated that pupils made errors in 80 % of the words they spelled. Qualitative analyses showed that orthographic representation of novel phonemes, of phonemes with similarly sounding neighbors, and of phonemes with allographic variants proved to be the most challenging. These difficulties were argued to be attributed, inter alia, to the linguistic distance between HL1 and AFL. The second study examined the developmental trajectory of grapho-phonemic knowledge among eighth, ninth, and tenth grade HL1 pupils by targeting novel phonemes. Findings showed that there was no significant improvement in spelling accuracy over time. Possible causes for such slow growth in spelling accuracy despite increased exposure over the years and the transparent nature of the voweled orthography of Arabic are discussed.

This chapter is part of a larger research project that was funded by the Mofet Institute of Israel and Beit Berl Academic College.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beit Berl Academic College, Kfar Saba, Israel

    Susie Russak

  2. Ben Gurion University, Be’er Sheva, Israel

    Alon Fragman

Authors
  1. Susie Russak
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  2. Alon Fragman
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Correspondence to Susie Russak .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Elinor Saiegh-Haddad

  2. Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    R. Malatesha Joshi

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Russak, S., Fragman, A. (2014). The Development of Grapho-Phonemic Representations among Native Hebrew Speakers Learning Arabic as a Foreign Language. In: Saiegh-Haddad, E., Joshi, R. (eds) Handbook of Arabic Literacy. Literacy Studies, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8545-7_17

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