A Contrastive Analysis of Lexical Repetition Across the Persuasive Speech and Writing of Arabic and English Majors.

المقال يقدم تحليلًا تباينيًا لتكرار المفردات في الخطاب والكتابة الإقناعية بين طلاب اللغة العربية والإنجليزية في تونس. يتناول 140 عينة من طلاب الجامعات، كاشفًا عن عدم وجود اختلافات ملحوظة في تكرار المفردات (LR) بين الإنتاجات المكتوبة والشفوية للغة العربية كلغة أولى (AL1)، ولا بين AL1 ومقالات الكتابة باللغة الإنجليزية كلغة أجنبية (EFL). ومع ذلك، أظهرت الكتابة باللغة الإنجليزية كلغة أجنبية معدلات أعلى من تكرار المفردات مقارنةً بالخطاب باللغة الإنجليزية كلغة أجنبية، مما يشير إلى أنماط مميزة في هذه السياقات. تؤكد الدراسة على تأثير الخلفيات الثقافية واللغوية العربية على أداء الكتابة باللغة الإنجليزية كلغة أجنبية وتسلط الضوء على تعقيدات نقل اللغة وأنماط التواصل بين الطلاب العرب. [Extracted from the article]

The current study aims to verify the claims, in the literature, about the repetitive nature of the Arabic language, its oral origin, as well as its potential transfer into Arabs' EFL discourse. To this end, using a mixed-methods research design, the study investigated the use of lexical repetition (LR) in 40 EFL essays, 40 EFL speeches, 30 Arabic as first language (AL1) essays and 30 AL1 speeches produced by Tunisian university students majoring in English and in Arabic. Through a quantitative analysis of the data, LR was measured by calculating the frequencies, as well as densities of simple and complex lexical repetition (SLR and CLR) and of overall LR. Furthermore, the frequencies and average length of lexical repetition chains (LRCs) were quantified. The statistical tests revealed an absence of a significant difference in the use of LR between AL1 written and oral productions, which implies a possible interplay between speech and writing in Arabic. Similarly, there was no statistically significant difference between AL1 and EFL written essays in LR measures. In contrast, the findings demonstrated a significant difference between the EFL written and oral corpora, with writing, unexpectedly displaying higher rates of LR. Overall, the findings did not exhibit an excessive or marked use of LR across the corpora. The analysis uncovered longer LRCs and a higher density of CLR in writing in comparison to speech. The qualitative analysis unveiled two major patterns of distribution of LR, namely even dispersions and (densely) clustered distributions. It also accounted for the comparable CLR densities in EFL and AL1, despite the highly derivational nature of Arabic. Finally, the study offered some examples of Arabicspecific LR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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