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The COVID-19 outbreak early 2020 has had a considerable impact on the global labor market. Many businesses closed down, constrained their working hours, reduced their staff, and/or limited their new recruitments. Many employees have been obliged to work remotely and interact digitally. Due to the pandemic, the unemployment rates have gone up to unprecedented rates in all countries. This study investigates the status of unemployment in Saudi Arabia in May 2021 among languages and translation graduates and whether Saudi universities have adapted their curricula to equip languages and translation graduating seniors with the necessary skills needed for the pandemic and post-pandemic job market. Most participating graduates, instructors and administrators in the sample reported lack of jobs for language and translation graduates and that universities have not adapted their curricula nor offered any training courses or seminars in job search techniques and digital and interpersonal skills necessary for the new pandemic job environment. The study recommends that Saudi universities offer online workshops and seminars to train graduating seniors in preparing a CV, writing a letter of purpose and cover letter, filling a job application form, answering online vocational interest surveys, where to look for a job online, joining online business communities, getting ready for job interviews, raising students' awareness of recruitment and job advertisement websites/pages, and training students in effective communication, interpersonal, and digital skills needed for a remote job environment. Students are also advised to do volunteer work and take training courses while waiting to be recruited.

This study explores undergraduate college students' difficulties in translating English and Arabic plurals. Results of an English and Arabic plural translation test showed that cases where Arabic plurals match those of English in English were translated correctly. However, the students had difficulty translating the following: (i) Arabic plurals that have a singular English equivalent [Arabic characters omitted] "jewelry"; (ii) Arabic duals with two different singular stems: [Arabic characters omitted] "the Tigris and Euphrates"; (iii) multiple Arabic plurals, i.e. plurals of paucity and multiplicity: [Arabic characters omitted] "chicken", [Arabic characters omitted] "a number of hens"; (iv) stems with two plurals and different usages: "economics" [Arabic characters omitted], "economies" [Arabic characters omitted]; (v) plural compound: "image processors" [Arabic characters omitted]; (vi) English nouns ending in -ies that have the same singular and plural form: "series, species"; (vii) distinguishing singular and plural forms of the same base when it has two part of speech such as a noun and adjective as in: "rich & riches"; "wood & woods"; (viii) foreign/Latin singular and plural forms: "indices, larvae, tempi, oases"; (ix) names of tools and articles of dress consisting of two parts ending in -s: "scissors" [Arabic characters omitted], "scales" [Arabic characters omitted] and others. Error data analysis showed that students made more errors in translating Arabic than English plurals, and made more interlanguage than interlangauge errors. Their responses to the Arabic-English plural translation test reflected more morphological than semantic difficulties, but their responses to the English-Arabic plural translation test reflected more semantic problems. They tended to translate imitatively rather than discriminately and literal translation was the most common strategy. When they could not access the meaning of a noun on the test, they gave an equivalent that is phonologically close, gave a paraphrase, an explanation, or an extraneous equivalent. In translating English and Arabic plurals, transfer is bidirectional, i.e., students transfer the noun morphology from the source language to the target language whether the source language is Arabic (L1) or English (L2). Implications for plural translation instruction are given.

This study analyzed a sample of online Arabic-English-Arabic specialized dictionaries of the Arabization Center in Morocco, the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo, the Saudi Terminology Databank (BASM), School Arabia glossaries, Dictionary Bay, and Babylon, to identify their entry design, entry components, breadth of coverage, whether they include the most recent terms, accuracy of translational equivalents and inclusiveness of meanings given. The study revealed several shortcomings of those online specialized dictionaries such as limited coverage, inaccuracy and inclusiveness of some meanings and slow up-dating. Some recommendations are given to improve the practicality and usefulness of online Arabic-English-Arabic specialized dictionaries to translation students.

Two groups of EFL freshman students participated in the study. Pre-test scores showed no significant differences in their oral proficiency level. Both groups were then exposed to the same in-class instruction that depended on the textbook. They covered the same lessons, skills, exercises and tests. Since freshman students have no opportunities to listen to native speakers, practice English out of class and have problems in auditory discrimination, listening comprehension, oral expression and lack oral fluency, the experimental group used a self-study MP3 English listening and speaking program. They mostly covered 90 lessons and listened to 900 short audio files of Basic English structures and commonly used expressions out of class. The MP3 lessons consisted of short sentences which the students could read, listen to and mimic as many times as they needed. On average, the students practiced 3.5 hours a week. At the end of the semester, they were post-tested. Results showed significant differences between both groups as a result of using the MP3 self-study lessons. The experimental group made higher gains in listening and speaking abilities. Improvement was noted in listening comprehension, oral expression, fluency, pronunciation correctness and vocabulary knowledge. Results also showed positive correlations between practice time and number of lessons covered by the students and listening and speaking posttest scores, i.e., improved listening and speaking skills. Students reported positive attitudes towards the MP3 self-study listening and speaking lessons and reported several benefits.

This study defined e-learning, the e-classroom, the e-course, learning management, learning management systems, instructional content management systems, and the Moodle system for managing e-courses. It also reviewed examples of some American schools and school districts that used the Moodle system in education and teacher training. The study identified some of the requirements for implementing Moodle e-courses, which included issuing the Ministry of Education's directive requiring teachers to enroll in training courses on using Moodle, training teacher trainers, determining the training objectives and content, the necessary infrastructure for implementing e-courses, a budget for e-learning, preparing electronic instructional content, and levels of implementing e-courses and providing technical support to teachers. The study gave some recommendations.

Latest developments in information technology resulted in a revolution in library and information sciences. Acquiring electronic searching skills together with the availability of electronic resources will enable researchers to access a plethora of up-to-date information and will lead to productivity in research. This study tried to investigate the availability of electronic databases at Arab university libraries, whether faculty members can search electronic databases, and the frequency of database usage. The homepages of 202 Arab universities were browsed and a sample of faculty was interviewed. It was found that 80.7% of Arab university libraries are still traditional and lack electronic databases, including some open universities, virtual universities and universities of science and technology. All university libraries in the Gulf States except Shari'aa universities contain electronic databases. It was also found that most databases are in English; Arabic databases are lacking. Foreign universities, such as the University of Columbia in the Sudan and the American Universities of Cairo and Beirut host many more databases than Arabic universities. It was found that all electronic databases at Um Al-Qura University were used 3686 times a year only. On average, a student or faculty member uses all databases once a year. Taking into consideration that the subscription fee for a single database per year can be as high as US$ 24,000, it can be said that database usage at Arab universities with database access is not cost-effective. In addition, 94% of female faculty members and 97% of female graduate students and none of the library employees at King Saud University can search electronic databases. On the basis of these findings, the study recommends that all Arab universities and research centers have a network of electronic resources, and that Arabic specialized electronic databases be created and new documents be indexed and stored on a regular basis. Researchers should be allowed to access available databases on and off-campus. Electronic publishing in Arabic should be also encouraged.

The present study tried to find out whether Saudi history textbooks for grades 4-12 contain global themes, in which grade levels global themes are introduced, the percentage of global themes, local history themes and Islamic history themes, and which global history themes are taught. A checklist of global history themes was developed. Those are: global systems, historical periods, ancient civilizations, world empires, world religions, human immigration, major wars, colonization and liberal movements, exploration expeditions, history of science and technology, the Industrial Revolution, international organizations, political and economic treaties and unions, conflicts, current global issues, social, economic, political and technological changes, emergence of the new world system. It was found that 68.5% of the themes were Islamic, 30% of the themes were local (focused on Saudi history), and only 1.5% of the themes in the nine history textbooks were global. It was concluded that the global dimension is completely ignored in Saudi history textbooks for grade 4-12. Therefore, this study recommends that Saudi history textbooks be reviewed and re-structured and global history themes be integrated. [This paper was published in: Proceedings of the Curriculum Development Conference titled "Principles and Starting Points," Vol. I, 2003, pp. 101-132.]

This study aimed to find out whether Singaporean secondary social studies textbooks contain global themes, in which grade level those global themes are introduced, the percentage of global themes in each textbook, and which global themes are emphasized. A checklist consisting of four main global themes was developed. Those are (1) global systems such as cultural, political, economic, ecological, technological, social, educational and healthcare systems, international organizations and international law; (2) global issues such as peace and conflict resolution, refugees; (3) human values like tolerance and cooperation, and (4) global history such as ancient civilizations, history of world religions, the industrial revolution, colonization and liberation movements. It was found that 33 % of the social studies themes in the four high school grades combined were global. Global themes constituted 16% of the first secondary grade textbook, 1.5% of the second secondary grade textbook, 65% of the third secondary grade textbook and 39.5% of the fourth secondary grade. It was also found that the first and second secondary textbooks mainly focus on world history. In the third secondary textbooks, 14% of the themes were allocated to global systems and 17% to human values, 27% to global issues, 7% to global history. In the fourth secondary grade textbook, 7% of the themes were allocated to global systems, 16% to global issues and 17% to global history. It was concluded that Singaporean secondary school social studies textbooks develop global awareness in Singaporean students through a theme-based approach and a selection of a variety of current global issues in well-designed textbooks that develop independent and critical thinking skills and participation goals.

The study proposes a model for integrating ethnic culture Facebook pages in second/foreign language learning and teaching to help develop college students' proficiency level in EFL/ESL, i.e. their listening, speaking, reading, writing and vocabulary skills; to help the students explore, understand, compare and contrast ethnic cultures or sub-cultures of interest to them; accept and respect diversity; help the students create a sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group or ethnic culture; develop a sense of pride in their ethnic background; and develop a liking for traditional and social activities of "my ethnic group". Students in the same class, different classes, different schools, regions, countries, with the same or different ethnic background can join a Facebook culture page or create their own ethnic culture page on Facebook. They can use English to study several elements (themes) of the ethnic culture(s). They can post cultural information, photos, videos, and podcasts, each student can keep a log of her/his contributions. They read, write, share and discuss information about an ethnic group. This introduce EFL students to different elements of ethnic culture, similarities and differences between the ethnic cultures of the country and an ethnic culture that exists in several regions. [This is a chapter in: M. V. Makarych (Ed.), "Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference on "Ethnology: Genesis of Hereditary Customs" (pp. 41-43), 2014, Minsk, Belarus: Repository of the Belarusian National Technical University (BNTU).]