walking the less trodden path: an account of bilingual research experiences mariam attia university...
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Walking the less trodden path: An account of bilingual
research experiences
Mariam AttiaUniversity of Manchester
‘Doing Research Multilingually’ July 7th, 2010
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The Research
• Situated in the Arabic Language Institute (ALI) at the American University in Cairo, Egypt
• Explores teachers’ beliefs about using ICT in teaching Arabic as a foreign language
Different Languages..
• The less trodden path..• Arabic, English, Danish, a bit of German• Interaction between the different
languages
Different Languages.. (Cont.)
a) Doctoral Research1. Research training2. Research plan3. Data collection4. Data analysis5. Writing-up
b) Additional Professional Activities
1. Research Training
• Methodological foundation – English (mainly)
• Consulted references – Arabic
2. Research Plan
• Literature, theoretical framework, supervision - English
• Defending the research plan at the Review Panel - English
• This was the expectation
3. Data Collection
• A Shift from English to Arabic (insider researcher)
• A lot of translation initially, as the research was introduced to the participants
• More access to Arabic references• English was still present (code switching)
for contextual reasons: The American University in Cairo - Most teachers had an MA in TAFL from that university
3. Data Collection (Cont.)
Supervision Fieldwork (English) (Arabic)
4. Data Analysis - Maxqda
5. Writing-up
• English coding and the smooth transition• Challenges with the translation: idioms,
style..• Communication with supervisors
The words “experiment”, “play”, or “fiddle” are not accurate translations of the Arabic term that the teacher frequently uses in her data. It’s an Egyptian colloquial word that refers to patiently spending time and exerting effort to play with something and try different things with the aim of reaching a specific objective. Depending on the task at hand, people might try buttons, look into books, ask others, find themselves back to square one, start all over again, and so on until they reach their objectives.. Is there one verb in English that saves all those lines?
b) Additional Professional Activities
• Publication – English (maybe Arabic)• Conferences – English & Arabic• Professional training and collaborative
research – English and Arabic• Research communities – English, Arabic &
Danish
