Cover not available

In:Experimental Arabic Linguistics
Edited by Dimitrios Ntelitheos and Tommi Tsz-Cheung Leung
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 10] 2021
► pp. 109–122

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

An eye-tracking study of phonological awareness in Emirati Arabic

ORCiD logo with link | United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates
ORCiD logo with link | United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates
ORCiD logo with link | United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates
 | United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates
Published online: 26 July 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.10.04mar
Abstract
This paper studies phonological awareness in Emirati Arabic by tracking eye movements. Thirty-eight Arabic participants, divided into feedback and no feedback groups, were evaluated on three phonological conditions: (1) explicit instructions for onset consonant matching, (2) implicit instructions for segmentation of initial consonant, and (3) rhyme matching. We hypothesized that (1) fixations would differ according to the phonological conditions, (2) subjects would perform better on explicit instructions compared to implicit instructions, (3) subjects would perform better in the two consonant conditions compared to the rhyme condition, and (4) feedback would improve performance. The experiment shows that accuracy on the consonant conditions was higher than in the rhyme condition. Fixation patterns differed between the consonant conditions and the rhyme condition, and this effect was dependent on the administration of feedback, suggesting that eye tracking can be used to evaluate phonological awareness in Emirati Arabic.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Eye-tracking
  • 3.The visual world paradigm
  • 4.Current study
  • 5.Method
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Stimuli
    • 5.3Design
    • 5.4Procedure
    • 5.5Measures
  • 6.Results
  • 7.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (52)
References
al Mannai, H., & Everatt, J. (2005). Phonological processing skills as predictors of literacy amongst Arabic speaking Bahraini children. Dyslexia, 11, 269–291. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alamri, A. (2017). Phonological, semantic and root activation in spoken word recognition in Arabic: Evidence from eye movements. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Ottawa, Canada.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allopenna, P. D., Magnuson, J. S., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (1998). Tracking the time course of spoken word recognition using eye movements: Evidence for continuous mapping models. Journal of Memory and Language, 38, 419–439. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Altmann, G. T. M. (2004). Language-mediated eye movements in the absence of a visual world: The ‘blank screen paradigm’. Cognition, 93, 79–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Altmann, G. T. M., & Kamide, Y. (1999). Incremental interpretation at verbs: Restricting the domain of subsequent reference. Cognition, 73, 247–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asaad, H., & Eviatar, Z. (2014). Learning to read in Arabic: The long and winding road. Reading and Writing, 27(4), 649–664. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boudelaa, S., & Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (2001). Morphological units in the Arabic mental lexicon. Cognition, 81(1), 65–92. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brouwer, S., & Bradlow, A. R. (2016). The temporal dynamics of spoken word recognition in adverse listening conditions. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 45(5), 1151–1160. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bylinskii, Z., Borkin, M. A., Kim, N. W., Pfister, H., & Oliva, A. (2017). Eye fixation metrics for large scale evaluation and comparison of information visualizations. In M. Burch, L. Chuang, B. Fisher, A. Schmidt, & D. Weiskopf (Eds.), ETVIS: Workshop on Eye Tracking and Visualization. Mathematics and Visualization. (pp. 235–255). Chicago: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Conklin, K., & Pellicer-Sánchez, A. (2016). Using eye-tracking in applied linguistics and second language research. Second Language Research, 32(3), 453–467. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cooper, R. M. (1974). The control of eye fixation by the meaning of spoken language: A new methodology for the real-time investigation of speech perception, memory, and language processing. Cognitive Psychology, 6(1), 84–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Desroches, A. S., Joanisse, M. F., & Robertson, E. K. (2006). Specific phonological impairments in dyslexia revealed by eyetracking. Cognition, 100, 32–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferreira, F., Apel, J., & Henderson, J. M. (2008). Taking a new look at looking at nothing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(11), 405–410. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goswami, U. (1999). Causal connections in beginning reading: The importance of rhyme. Journal of Research in Reading, 22(3), 217–240. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goswami, U., & Bryant, P. (1990). Phonological skills and learning to read. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoffiz, B. T., III (1995). Morphology of United Arab Emirates Arabic, Dubai dialect. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Arizona. [URL]
Holm, A., Farrier, F., & Dodd, B. (2008). Phonological awareness, reading accuracy and spelling ability of children with inconsistent phonological disorder. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 43(3), 300–322. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huettig, F., Rommers, J., & Meyer, A. S. (2011). Using the visual world paradigm to study language processing: A review and critical evaluation. Acta Psychologica, 137(2), 151–171. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Idrissi, A., Prunet, J.-F., & Béland, R. (2008). On the mental representation of Arabic roots. Linguistic Inquiry, 39(2), 221–259. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1976a). Eye fixations and cognitive processes. Cognitive Psychology, 8(4), 441–480. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1976b). The role of eye-fixation research in cognitive psychology. Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation, 8(2), 139–143. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kirtley, C., Bryant, P., MacLean, M., & Bradley, L. (1989). Rhyme, rime and the onset of reading. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 48, 224–245. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knoeferle, P., & Crocker, M. W. (2007). The influence of recent scene events on spoken comprehension: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Memory and Language, 57(4), 519–543. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lahrache, S., El Ouazzani, R., & El Qadi, A. (2018). Visualizations memorability through visual attention and image features. Procedia Computer Science, 127, 328–335. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Landerl, K., Freudenthaler, H. H., Heene, M., De Jong, P. F., Desrochers, A., Manolitsis, G., Parrila, R., & Georgiou, G. K. (2019). Phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming as longitudinal predictors of reading in five alphabetic orthographies with varying degrees of consistency. Scientific Studies of Reading, 23(3), 220–234. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marquis, A. (2016–2018). Development of an assessment tool for oral skills in Emirati Arabic speaking children. Al Ain, United Arab Emirates: United Arab Emirates University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). LATFA: An assessment tool for Emirati Arabic-speaking children. In D. Ntelitheos and T. Leung (Eds.), Experimental Arabic Linguistics (pp. 125–142). John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (1987). Functional parallelism in spoken word-recognition. Cognition, 25(1–2), 71–102. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McClelland, J. L., & Elman, J. L. (1986). The TRACE model of speech perception. Cognitive Psychology, 18(1), 1–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Melby-Lervåg, M., Lyster, S. A. H., & Hulme, C. (2012). Phonological skills and their role in learning to read: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 138(2), 322–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norris, D. (1994). Shortlist: A connectionist model of continuous speech recognition. Cognition, 52(3), 189–234. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ntelitheos, D., & Idrissi, A. (2017). Language growth in child Emirati Arabic. In H. Ouali (Ed.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XXIX: Papers from the Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2015 (pp. 229–248). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orquin, J. L., & Loose, S. M. (2013). Attention and choice: A review on eye movements in decision making. Acta Psychologica, 144(1), 190–206. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pickering, M. J., Frisson, S., McElree, B., & Traxler, M. J. (2004). Eye movements and semantic composition. In M. Carreiras and C. Clifton Jr. (Eds.), The on-line study of sentence comprehension: Eyetracking, ERP, and beyond (pp. 33–50). New York: Psychology Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pyykkönen-Klauck, P., & Crocker, M. W. (2016). Attention and eye movement metrics in visual world eye tracking. In P. Knoeferle, P. Pyykkönen-Klauck, & M. W. Crocker (Eds.), Visually situated language comprehension (pp. 67–82). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Qafisheh, H. A. (1977). A short reference grammar of Gulf Arabic. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, R. R. (2013). Morphology. In J. Owens (ed.), The Oxford handbook of Arabic linguistics (pp. 71–91). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rayner, K. (2009). The 35th Sir Frederick Bartlett lecture: Eye movements and attention in reading, scene perception, and visual search. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(8), 1457–1506. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richardson, D. C., Altmann, G. T., Spivey, M. J., & Hoover, M. A. (2009). Much ado about eye movements to nothing: A response to Ferreira et al.: taking a new look at looking at nothing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(6), 235–236. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richardson, D. C., & Spivey, M. J. (2000). Representation, space and Hollywood Squares: Looking at things that aren’t there anymore. Cognition, 76(3), 269–295. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rvachew, S., Royle, P., Gonnerman, L. M., Stanké, B., Marquis, A., & Herbay, A. (2017). Development of a tool to screen risk of literacy delays in French-speaking children: PHOPHLO. Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, 41, 321–340.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2008). On the challenges posed by diglossia to the acquisition of basic reading processes in Arabic. Language and Literacy, 1, 101–126.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saiegh-Haddad, E., & Geva, E. (2008). Morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and reading in English–Arabic bilingual children. Reading and Writing, 21, 481–504. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saiegh-Haddad, E., & Taha, H. (2017). The role of morphological and phonological awareness in the early development of word spelling and reading in typically developing and disabled Arabic readers. Dyslexia, 23(4), 345–371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salverda, A. P., Brown, M., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (2011). A goal-based perspective on eye movements in visual world studies. Acta Psychologica, 137(2), 172–180. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salverda, A. P., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (2017). The visual world paradigm. In A. M. B. de Groot, and P. Hagoort (Eds.), Research methods in psycholinguistics and the neurobiology of language: A practical guide, (pp. 89–110). New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider, W., Roth, E., & Ennemoser, M. (2000). Training phonological skills and letter knowledge in children at risk for dyslexia: A comparison of three kindergarten intervention programs. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(2), 284. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Speece, D. L., Roth, F. P., Cooper, D. H., & De La Paz, S. (1999). The relevance of oral language skills to early literacy: A multivariate analysis. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20(2), 167–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spivey, M. J., & Geng, J. J. (2001). Oculomotor mechanisms activated by imagery and memory: Eye movements to absent objects. Psychological Research, 65, 235–241. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tanenhaus, M. K., Spivey-Knowlton, M. J., Eberhard, K. M., & Sedivy, J. C. (1995). Integration of visual and linguistic information in spoken language comprehension. Science, 268(5217), 1632–1634. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tanenhaus, M. K., & Trueswell, J. C. (2006). Eye movements and spoken language comprehension. In M. J. Traxler & M. A. Gernsbacher (eds.), Handbook of Psycholinguistics, (2nd ed., pp. 863–900). New York: Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tibi, S., & Kirby, J. R. (2018). Investigating phonological awareness and naming speed as predictors of reading in Arabic. Scientific Studies of Reading, 22(1), 70–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Ntelitheos, Dimitrios, Alexandra Marquis & Nikolaos Tsigilis
2025. The development of basic word order in child Emirati Arabic. First Language DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue