The study investigated acquisition of agreement structures by Arabic as Foreign Language (AFL) learners in Ghana from the Processability Theory (PT) perspective. Five Arabic agreement structures at the phrasal, sentence and subordinate clause levels of PT’s processing procedures were tested in a cross-sectional study. It aimed to establish predictions about the implicational nature of the processing procedures. Data were elicited from 15 students of the University of Ghana Arabic learners who were at different proficiency levels. Grammaticality Judgment Task and Elicited Production Task were used to elicit data. The result suggested that acquisition of agreement structures by Ghanaian AFL learners develop, generally, according to PT’s predictions. While the study largely conforms to PT predictions, the behaviour of the Noun Predicative Adjective structure in the interlanguage system of participants suggests that factors other than processing constraints may be involved in the processing architecture of the L2 learners in Ghana.
Arabic speaking countries live in diglossic communities. This is where two or more varieties of a language are used by the same speech community. This paper examines students’ attitude towards Arabic language varieties. It focuses mainly on Egyptian students’ attitude towards the fuṣḥā on one hand and the Egyptian Arabic (EA) variety on the other. A survey of fifty university students from the American University in Cairo and Ain Shams University, Cairo was conducted using the questionnaire instrument. The data was analysed descriptively. The study reveals that Egyptian students have a slightly positive attitude towards the fuṣḥā Arabic. Notwithstanding, they tend to exhibit positive affective and behavioural tendencies towards EA. Based on this, the study proposes that language planners and for that matter, Arab states should adopt a vibrant ‘status planning’, whereby fuṣḥā is properly recognized and widely used in official and state institutions and functions.
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