English speaking learner’s attitudes towards writing Arabic as L2

Conference Paper

2013

ALKADI, HISHAM . 2013

Relatively few studies have investigated the attitudes of English-speaking
learners towards learning Arabic writing as a second language, compared
to those which have been done in the opposite direction. This article briefly
looks at writing systems in the context of SLA as a preface to examine L2
learner perceptions towards WS differences. Emphasizing the key
differences between the Arabic and English writing systems, this essay
contributes to discovering the common Arabic writing errors amongst
learners whose first language is English. Inevitably, there are numerous
difficulties that could cause errors among foreign learners due to the L2
learning context. However, only main issues which relate specifically to the
differences between the English and Arabic writing systems are mentioned
and discussed.
Reviewing literature, the essay highlights 10 common error categories
namely; writing direction, character shapes, character substitution,
phonological difficulties, short vowels, gemination, dual nouns,
specificative, the two different Lams, and handwriting. Unsurprisingly, that
the fundamental differences between the Arabic and English writing
systems cause English learners of Arabic significant problems.
Subsequently, they usually encounter more difficulties than their Arabiclearning
peers from whose languages use Arabic script for writing such as
Kurdish, Urdu and Persian. Although some of these errors are also known
to be made by native speakers for complicated rules, some suggestions
have been made to limit making such errors.

• Conference Location: Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
• Conference Name: Multilingualism
• Sponsoring Organization: Fryslan University