Abdulaziz Al-Qahtani

This mixed mode study aims at examining digital citizenship among Saudi university undergraduates at the community college at the University of Tabuk. The objective of the study is manifested in three main axes; first, measuring the Saudi university undergraduates' perceptions of four categories of digital citizenship: Ethics, Media and Information Literacy, Engagement, and Critical Resistance. Second, investigate points of similarities and differences between male and female participants concerning the aforementioned categories. Lastly, the study explores the potential avenues for digital citizenship enablement within the selected context. 560 (280 females & 280 males) undergraduates participated in the study. Their age varied from 21 to 24 years old. The researchers designed a scale based on Ribble's (2015) and Siemens' (2005) theory of connectivism theoretical framework of digital citizenship. Two research instruments were used to collect data from participants in this study including an online questionnaire survey and an interview for 10 undergraduates (5 males & 5 females). Conducting exploratory factor analysis showed that the questionnaire had discriminant and convergent validity. 72.50% total variance was discussed by the nine applied digital citizenship factors. The findings of the study showed no statistical differences between undergraduates' digital citizenship uses related to gender, educational level, and age. In addition, the results indicated there was a statistical difference between undergraduates' digital citizenship uses credited to their regular practices with electronic devices.

The current study's objective examines the effectiveness of using a Think-Aloud strategy in improving Saudi EFL learners' reading comprehension and attitudes towards learning. A quantitative study with a quasi-experimental design was implemented through applying two different instruments: Reading Comprehension Skills Test and Attitude Scale towards learning EFL. The study adopts a pre-post control group design where forty students were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group. Students of the experimental group were instructed by using metacognitive Think-Aloud strategy, whereas, the control group received traditional treatment such as skimming and scanning techniques. The findings of the study showed that the attitudes and reading comprehension skills of the experimental group improved significantly as opposed to the control group. The study gives more insight into the importance of applying a Think-Aloud strategy in teaching reading comprehension insi...

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of Creative Circles approach in developing Saudi EFL middle school learners’ reading comprehension. The study was carried out at a Saudi middle school in Jeddah, involving three intact third grade classes. A triangulated approach was adopted in order to collect data by means of multiple instruments- reading comprehension test, reflective journals and semi-structured interviews over the period of a school term. The results revealed a significant improvement in the experimental group’s reading comprehension abilities. The success of Creative Circles approach could be attributed to its adoption of collaborative reading as a teaching/learning technique, explicit teaching of reading skills, attention to low-level and high level reading processes and metacognitive awareness. Moreover, the experimental group as well as their teacher indicated that the new approach has immensely helped in addressing the issue of vocabulary learning. They a...

The current study's objective examines the effectiveness of using a Think-Aloud strategy in improving Saudi EFL learners' reading comprehension and attitudes towards learning. A quantitative study with a quasi-experimental design was implemented through applying two different instruments: Reading Comprehension Skills Test and Attitude Scale towards learning EFL. The study adopts a pre-post control group design where forty students were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group. Students of the experimental group were instructed by using metacognitive Think-Aloud strategy, whereas, the control group received traditional treatment such as skimming and scanning techniques. The findings of the study showed that the attitudes and reading comprehension skills of the experimental group improved significantly as opposed to the control group. The study gives more insight into the importance of applying a Think-Aloud strategy in teaching reading comprehension inside EFL educational context. The study also suggests recommendations for EFL teachers to increase the efficiency of applying this strategy through their teaching procedures.

Universities utilize language as a powerful tool to influence people’s perceptions. By employing language as a means of information and representation, electronic websites are becoming increasingly important for both universities and students. There are unanswered questions related to the portrayal of Saudi universities through the use of linguistic representation on their websites and the contribution of these websites to understanding the overlapping factors that reinforce academic practices within the Saudi social structure. This study compares and analyses the various discourses that are used to represent Saudi universities on their websites in terms of social constructs (e.g., gender and race). To that end, critical discourse analysis (CDA) is utilized to describe, analyse, and interpret the textual and visual representations of five Saudi university websites at the local, institutional and societal levels. The results indicate that the universities use a common systematic promotional discourse to represent themselves, emphasizing prestige and uniqueness. This finding means that universities are in control of the informational message with which their viewers interact. Moreover, terms such as “leaders”, “Vision 2030”, “distinguished education” and “competent” frequently appear without further explanations, thus triggering uncertainty. The findings also suggest that the websites lack diversity in their representation of gender, race and economic status. The descriptive analysis reveals limited textual content providing viewers with cursory information about important topics such as registration, academic majors, campus and financial aid. Furthermore, the acknowledgement of underrepresented individuals is highly asserted by embracing and promoting diversity. This study recommends that these institutions should focus on the quality level of information and areas of strength rather than quantity. Furthermore, they need to employ their mission statements to generate realistic directions and purposes that are tailored to society’s needs.

Article History This study aims to identify the role of integrating technology in enhancing the use of language. The impact of utilizing the corpus-based approach (CA) on EFL learners' academic writing is investigated; highlighting the effects of this integration on L2 learning and writing approaches. The competence development in EFL academic writing skills is asserted by tackling the contextual factors that influence corpus integration. This qualitative study is based on (10) case studies on non-native students in EFL academic writing courses. The corpus approach in this study was implemented during the fourth year of their English undergraduate program in the first semester of the academic year 2019/2020. Five different instruments were used to achieve the study purposes. The findings indicate the positive effect of incorporating corpus and its use in EFL students' academic writing development and language awareness. The lexico-grammar integration has also been promoted significantly. The corpus-based approach enables participants to solve the problems they encountered while writing independently. Students also gain more confidence and become more autonomous and independent EFL writers. In this study attention is drawn to the participants' language and learning background experience as factors that can shape the students' progress and success in corpus implementation. The distinctive role of general corpora in association with the development of the academic writing skills is further highlighted. It is hoped that that the current study will reinforce the tendency of incorporating grammatical language aspects such as collocations and phrasal verbs in the writing pedagogy process. Contribution/ Originality: This study signifies the connection between teaching practices and technology integration approaches, which can be challenging, especially in the Arab region context where corpus linguistics is not a widely researched topic. Furthermore, since the study highlights individual students' experience, it deepens the understanding of integrating corpus approach in EFL contexts, in particular tertiary education.

In the pedagogy of language education, the importance of teaching English pragmatic competence has received considerable attention lately. As an attempt to contribute to literature in this field, this study investigated the importance of teaching pragmatic competence in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. It explored the extent to which Saudi EFL teachers implement pragmatic competence features in their daily classroom practice. It also identified the difficulties they encounter during classrooms procedures and practices. In order to achieve the study objectives, a mixed

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of Creative Circles approach in developing Saudi EFL middle school learners' reading comprehension. The study was carried out at a Saudi middle school in Jeddah, involving three intact third grade classes. A triangulated approach was adopted in order to collect data by means of multiple instruments-reading comprehension test, reflective journals and semi-structured interviews over the period of a school term. The results revealed a significant improvement in the experimental group's reading comprehension abilities. The success of Creative Circles approach could be attributed to its adoption of collaborative reading as a teaching/learning technique, explicit teaching of reading skills, attention to low-level and high level reading processes and metacognitive awareness. Moreover, the experimental group as well as their teacher indicated that the new approach has immensely helped in addressing the issue of vocabulary learning. They also described the approach as efficient and flexible in large and mix-abilities classes.

Discourse markers (DMs) instruction is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the literature on second language learning. As noted by Al-Yaari, Al Hammadi, Alyami, and Almaflehi (2013), and Algouzi (2014), the use of DMs is insufficient to support the development of the language skills, especially reading, of Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners'. Recurrent reports (e.g., Al Abik, 2014; Al-Mansour & Al-Shorman, 2011) have shown that Saudi EFL learners perform poorly on reading comprehension tasks. Since these studies were generally descriptive, the current study attempted to fill the gap by providing empirical data, particular to low-proficiency learners in the Saudi EFL context, based on an eight-session intervention programme to familiarise learners with DMs. This study hypothesised that explicit DM instruction could improve learners' reading comprehension and that there would be a significant positive relationship between Saudi EFL learners' knowledge of DMs and their reading performance. To test these hypotheses, two classes with a total of 70 Saudi male third-grade secondary students were assigned as control and experimental groups. The experimental group was introduced to the intervention programme, whereas the control group was only taught the prescribed reading lessons. Two forms of tests in both DMs and reading comprehension were administered to the two groups before and after the intervention. A correlation analysis was also run to determine the relationship between learners' knowledge of DMs and their reading performance. Results confirmed, with a large effect size, that explicit instruction in DMs improved low-proficiency EFL learners' reading comprehension. The finding also suggested that knowledge of DMs correlated highly with reading comprehension. In other words, learners who were good at recognising DMs performed better in reading comprehension tasks, whereas those who were poor at recognising DMs performed poorly. Practical suggestions for pedagogy and future research were also identified.

Despite the efforts made by the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia, there is still much to be done in order to nourish creativity in schools. According to a number of studies, there is an urgent need to reconsider the role of creativity in the current educational programmes because there is an increasing gap between the reality of the classrooms and the expectations that students and others, such as parents, might have. Studies have shown that Saudi public school students lack the necessary creative thinking skills, especially in language classrooms. In fact, as claimed by some researchers, Saudi students' low level of achievement in English is mainly a result of the approaches and methods practiced in schools that do not promote creativity. The current study explores whether or not EFL teachers promote creativity in their classrooms in Saudi Arabia, while also taking into consideration their own perceptions and attitudes towards this important concept. The sample in this study included 45 Saudi EFL teachers and six EFL supervisors. After teachers responded to a creativity questionnaire that explored their attitudes and the extent to which they promote creativity in language classrooms, eight of the teachers and the six EFL supervisors were interviewed. The results revealed that most Saudi EFL teachers put little effort into fostering creativity in their teaching practices. Also, their attitudes towards creativity seem to be divided. The study identified a number of factors as being responsible for these results. They highlight the need to familiarize textbook designers, EFL supervisors, and teachers with the importance of creativity and its various applications. The study concludes with important practical recommendations and suggestions for future research.

The aim of the current study was to investigate the reasons behind Saudi learners' poor reading skills. To this end, the objectives were to identify the reading habits of Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) middle school learners, to understand the extent to which Saudi EFL middle school learners use reading comprehension skills and to explore the perceptions of learners, teachers and supervisors regarding Saudi EFL learners' reading abilities. The study sample consisted of 90 Saudi EFL middle school students, eight EFL teachers and six supervisors. The students were surveyed and interviewed about their reading habits and use of reading skills, while the teachers and supervisors were interviewed to explore their perceptions about reading instruction in the Saudi context. The results revealed that most Saudi EFL students lack the necessary reading habits in L1 and L2. In addition, they rarely make use of important reading skills when they read English texts. This study identified " lack of exposure to target language " , " poor teaching skills and teacher training programs " , " little attention to comprehension and more attention to reading aloud " , " students' lack of motivation " , " little emphasis on reading skills in textbooks " , " unfamiliar and unsuitable reading topics " , " lack of reading skills training for students " , " students' limited vocabulary " and " lack of parental involvement " as the most important factors behind Saudi students' poor reading abilities. The study concluded with important recommendations and suggestions for future research.