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Expressions of impossibility refer to events that can never or rarely happen, tasks that are difficult or impossible to perform, people or things that are of no use and things that are impossible to find. This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic expressions of impossibility, and the difficulties that student-translators have with them. A corpus of English and Arabic expressions of impossibility was collected, analyzed and compared. Data analysis showed that English and Arabic expressions of impossibility fall into 4 categories: (i) those that are identical in form and meaning in both languages (to look for a needle in a haystack, when salt blossoms, when heaven falls on earth); (ii) those that are similar in meaning but differ in wording (when pigs fly, on cloud nine, not in a million years); (iii) those used in English, but have no equivalents in Arabic (when hell freezes over, dance on a land mine); and (iv) those used in Arabic but have no equivalents in English [Arabic characters omitted] to show someone the stars at noon/in daylight). Responses to a translation test showed that student-translators could translate fewer than 35% of the test items correctly and left many blank. Expressions of impossibility that are similar in English and Arabic were easy to translate, whereas opaque ones (ghost of a chance, near the knuckle, dance on a land mine, [Arabic characters omitted] the sun cannot be covered with a sieve; [Arabic characters omitted] you cannot reap grapes from thorns; [Arabic characters omitted] when you see your ear's lobe; [Arabic characters omitted] the eye cannot defy a n awl). English expressions of impossibility were more difficult to translate than Arabic ones as they contained unfamiliar lexical items. Literal translation, explanation/ paraphrase,partial translation, and extraneous translation were the most common strategies in that order. Detailed results and recommendations are given.

In Spring 2020, there was a sudden shift from face-to-face (F2F) to distance learning (DL) due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. A study by Al-Jarf (2020) showed that 55% of the students and instructors preferred F2F instruction and were not satisfied with DL due to unfamiliarity, lack of training, interaction, technical problems and others. In the Fall Semester 2021, Saudi universities resumed F2F instruction in combination with some online classes. In some emergencies such as weather conditions, all students study online rather than cancelling classes. This status quo has continued until now. This study explores students' preferences for DL vs F2F learning, their attitudes towards each and reasons for their preferences. Responses to a survey showed that 36% of the students in the sample prefer DL because it has become a necessity during emergencies such as pandemics and wars. They can check the lecture recording any time. They save commuting time. In addition, 40% of the respondents prefer F2F instruction because they get better grades. It is more suitable for science classes (labs, experiments, anatomy). Participation, interaction, and questions make a difference. In DL, students can leave Blackboard or Zoom, walk around, and take a nap, whereas in F2F, they focus better. Some health sciences, engineering, law, and/or business instructors talk about their experiences and views of the job market which is enriching and enjoyable for the students. Moreover, 17% have no preference and believe that the mode of learning depends on the instructors' competence, teaching techniques used, integration of technologies, and online resources, interaction, engagement, and students' participation. Participants' views and recommendations are given in detail.

This study explores Arab university faculty's views on fully AI-generated assignments and research papers submitted by students, what reasons they give for their stance and how they react in this case. Surveys with a sample of 45 Arab instructors revealed that 98% do not accept AI-generated assignments and research papers from students at all. They gave numerous reasons for their position. If students submit AI-generated assignments or research papers, they would ask them to re-write them. The study recommends raising students' awareness of university policies regarding AI-generated content and introducing faculty and students to AI plagiarism detection tools. Faculty views and recommendations are reported in detail.

Student translators at the College of Language Sciences take a Media and Political Translation course in which they translate the latest news stories, media and political texts and terminology. This study proposes a model for integrating Gaza-Israeli war terminology and texts in translation instruction to familiarize the students with terminology such as names of weapons (grenades, mortar, drones, missiles, Merkava, Cornet anti-armor, mortar shells), toponyms(Khan Younis, Maghazi, Sderot, Ashkelon), crossings (Rafah, Erez), Jihadist groups and brigades (Islamic Jihad, Golani), military actions (incursion, bombing, shelling, genocide, displacement) war metaphors (target bank, carpet bombing, scorched earth, fire belt, Philadelphia Axis, Hannibal's plan), (UNRWA, Gaza hospitals, starvation, humanitarian aid) and others. English and Arabic texts can be collected from mainstream media as RT, BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera and Al-Ghad. A class blog can be created for posting translations, corrections, discussions, and feedback. The students can practice full, summary, and conceptual translation and avoid word-for-word translation. They can watch news stories about the Gaza-Israel war, write a summary translation of it and receive comments and feedback. Beginners can translate short news excerpts (few lines). Students make sure their translations are cohesive, make sense and are easy to read. Students should use Google Translate and artificial intelligence (AI) with caution and should read the same news story in both English and Arabic to get used to the terminology and their equivalents. The instructor serves as a facilitator. Further instructional guidelines and recommendations are given.

Time metaphorical expressions are common in all languages and in general as well as specialized contexts. This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic time metaphorical expressions containing , and the difficulties that student-translators have in translating them; the translation strategies they use and the causes of translation weaknesses. A sample of English and Arabic general and specialized time metaphors containing second [Arabic symbols omitted], minute [Arabic symbols omitted], hour [Arabic symbols omitted], day[Arabic symbols omitted], year [Arabic symbols omitted], age, era, and epoch [Arabic symbols omitted], [Arabic symbols omitted] eternity; time [Arabic symbols omitted] was collected, analyzed and compared. It was found that time metaphorical expressions fall into 4 categories: (i) those that are identical in form and meaning in both languages (golden age, around the clock); (ii) those that are similar in meaning but differ in wording (wait for ages); (iii) those that exist in English, but have no equivalents in Arabic (time is money); and (iv) those that exist in Arabic but have no equivalents in English ([Arabic symbols omitted] tremors of the day of judgment). Specialized expressions used in both languages are exact translations (Stone Age). Student-translators could translate fewer than 20% of the test items correctly and left many blank. Time metaphorical expressions similar in both languages were easy to translate, whereas opaque ones with an idiomatic or metonymic meaning and culture-specific ones were difficult ([Arabic symbols omitted] too old, obsolete; [Arabic symbols omitted] insignificant people talking about crucial issues ). Those that require a specialized background knowledge ([Arabic symbols omitted] Cretaceous Period) were difficult as well. Numerous strategies were utilized in translating the time expression as literal translation, partial translation, paraphrase, using synonyms and extraneous translations. Results and recommendations for translation pedagogy are given.

Rubrics are scoring guides, consisting of specific pre-established performance criteria, used in evaluating student work. iRubric is a comprehensive rubric development, assessment, and sharing tool. It shows the major skills and sub skills to be mastered, the different mastery levels, and marks allocated to each level. Rubrics can be collaboratively assessed with colleagues, classes and other individuals. Students and colleagues can be engaged in building classroom activities, assessing ePortfolios, or may use the powerful collaborative assessment tools as surveys and evaluation mechanisms. iRubrics also empower schools with an easy-to-use system for monitoring student learning outcomes and aligning with standards, show level of performance, serve as a guide for beginning instructors & students, show what is expected from students, save grading time and student get a copy of the scored rubric securely. Rubric scores are automatically adjusted to the coursework grading scale and posted on the gradebook in an online course. This article shows how rubrics can be created for writing courses in English as a foreign language by teachers and students using the iRubric tool of Rcampus. Sample writing iRubrics are used for illustration.

An asynchronous online translation discussion forum was created and used to post texts to be translated by participating English-Arabic student translators from different countries. Volunteer translation instructors read participants' translations and gave communicative feedback on the location and types of errors. Errors were color-coded. No correct translations were provided. The participants revised their translations and re-posted them for further feedback. Each translation was subjected to several revisions and re-submissions before it reached an acceptable level. Translation tips were given. The participants had access to a variety of online dictionaries and resources. At the end of the semester, participants responded to a questionnaire regarding their online collaborative experience. Participant views and further reflections on online translation instruction are given. [This paper was presented at "Translation Studies: Retrospective and Prospective Views" 9-11 October 2008 "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Romania.]