Faculty Of Languages Research Paper

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Exploring challenges in audiovisual translation: A comparative analysis of human- and AI-generated Arabic subtitles in Birdman
(PLOS ONE, 2024-10-21) Islam Al Saw; Rania Allam
Movies often use allusions to add depth, create connections, and enrich the storytelling. However, translators may face challenges when subtitling movie allusions, as they must render both meaning and culture accurately despite existing language and cultural barriers. These challenges could be further complicated by the use of available AI tools attempting to subtitle movie allusions, while probably unaware of existing cultural complexities. This research investigates these challenges using qualitative and descriptive quantitative approaches by analyzing the movie Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), comprising13.014 words, to identify the types of allusions used and compare the human- vs. AI (ChatGPT)-generated Arabic subtitles in terms of the subtitling strategies, their frequency, and quality. The results revealed that the movie used 52 Noun Phrase (NP) allusions, where the writer intertextually employed a proper name to convey meaning, and 8 Key-Phrase (KP) allusions, where the writer used phrases that convey implicit meaning easily perceived by members of the source culture (by referring to religious, literary, or entertainment texts). For NP allusions, both the human translator and AI opted for retentive strategies; however, the human translator’s preference to add guidance/parentheses to mark NP allusions was distinct. Additionally, it was observed that AI used neologism to render technology-related allusions, which could be a suggested strategy for NP subtitling into Arabic. For KP allusions, while the human translator seemed to be cognizant of the idea that KP allusions typically require a change in wording, AI fell short. Specifically, the human translator employed reduction in 5 out of 8 KPs, opting for minimum change/literal translation only three times. Conversely, AI utilized literal translation in all 8 examples, despite its awareness of the allusion and its intricate meaning/reference. As for the FAR assessment, for NP allusions, it revealed minor semantic errors in AI’s subtitles that did not affect the plot. Regarding KP allusions, AI’s subtitles were penalized in 5 out of its 8 Arabic renditions, in contrast to the human translator. Most of the errors were serious semantic errors that likely disrupted the flow of reading the subtitles due to conveying irrelevant meanings in the movie’s/scene’s context. Despite its functionality, this study suggests adding an extra parameter to the FAR model: consistency, as it plays a role in enhancing audience involvement and understanding. Its absence, as observed in some AI instances, can be misleading.
Unlocking cultural riches: navigating cultural terms translation in ‘The Treasure’ Egyptian movie
(UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group, 2024-09-17) Noureldin Mohamed Noureldin Abdelaal
This research Investigates the translation strategies of subtitling culture-terms in (The Treasure)’s Egyptian movie. The study places particular emphasis on a spectrum of cultural references encompassing personal names, geographical locations, culinary items, and more. Employing a qualitative methodology, this inquiry investigates the intricate set of strategies utilized in the subtitling of cultural references, adopting the theoretical framework presented by Pedersen. Through the application of Pedersen’s framework and a thorough examination of subtitling strategies in ‘The Treasure,’ this study highlights the prevalence of certain strategies, notably omission, and casts light on the intricate interplay of language, culture, and translation in the realm of subtitling. In essence, this research contributes to an enriched comprehension of how subtitlers navigate the intricate terrain of translating cultural references in audiovisual content.
Subtitling strategies of swear words in the stand-up comedy Mo Amer: Muhammad in Texas
(Babel-Verlag, 2024-05) Al Sawi, Islam
Stand-up comedies often employ swear words as a technique to create audience rapport and playful discourse. However, translators face significant challenges in subtitling swear words in these performances for conservative cultures, such as Arabic. This research uses a qualitative and quantitative approach to analyze the Netflix special Mo Amer: Muhammad in Texas to identify swear words, their Arabic subtitles, and the subtitling strategies used and their frequency, utilizing Ljung's (2011) swear words' classification and Khoshsaligheh and Ameri's (2014) subtitling framework. The results revealed that among the 174 identified swear words, "fuck"and "shit"were the most frequently used, at 52% and 16% respectively. Translators employed euphemism, deletion, and taboo to non-taboo strategies, with euphemism emerging as the most predominant at 44%. The strategy of subtitling via taboo to taboo was not used when rendering swear words into Arabic, probably due to cultural considerations for the audience. The findings enhance cross-cultural subtitling practices for stand-up comedy and promote inclusive and engaging experiences for diverse audiences. Further implications are discussed.
The Role of Corpora in Enhancing Translation Accuracy and Fluency Feasibility of Using Corpora as a Tool in Translation Practice
(Castledown Publishers, 2023-12) ABDELAAL, NOURELDIN MOHAMED
Translators employ an array of tools to streamline the translation process, ensuring precision and coherence. The necessity of these tools is particularly pronounced when tackling authentic materials, such as texts from the United Nations (UN). Among these tools, corpora stand out as a pivotal resource. In light of this, this study undertook a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative exploration into the impact of UN parallel corpora on novice translators. The research sought to address two fundamental questions: Does the utilization of parallel corpora significantly enhance translation performance? Furthermore, what specific areas of improvement, if any, are facilitated by the incorporation of parallel corpora? To address these questions, a cohort of 30 students undertook two translation tasks of equal complexity. The initial task was conducted without the support of UN corpora, while the subsequent task integrated the use of these corpora. Employing a t-test, the study scrutinized the statistical significance of divergence among the participants. The outcomes illuminate that the integration of corpora within translation pedagogy, particularly for UN texts, plays an indispensable role. This integration furnishes students with authentic source materials, facilitating comprehension of intricate terminologies inherent in these documents. Furthermore, corpora enable students to discern underlying linguistic patterns, encompassing syntax, collocations, and discourse structures. This linguistic insight equips translators to faithfully convey intended meanings and registers in their translations. Notably, the T-test outcomes establish a substantial positive influence of corpora utilization on the achievement of students.
Perceptions, Challenges, and Prospects: University Professors’ Use of Artificial Intelligence in Education
(Castledown Publishers, 2024-07) ABDELAAL, NOURELDIN MOHAMED; AL SAWI, ISLAM
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a prominent area of investigation in the field of education. Also, perceptions, challenges and threats of AI among university professors show notable variations. This study explores university professors’ perspectives regarding AI, including their familiarity with AI, its educational impacts, challenges associated with its implementation, and perceived threats. To achieve this, a survey was administered to 65 university professors from diverse Egyptian institutions, both state and private. Subsequent statistical analyses were conducted to treat the collected data. The outcomes of these analyses reveal that university professors possess varying degrees of familiarity with AI. Despite this, they view AI as a valuable educational tool. The study identifies several challenges hindering AI adoption, encompassing difficulties in comprehending and interpreting AI algorithmic outcomes, the intricate autonomy of AI systems, financial implications of implementation, and concerns regarding data privacy. Additionally, the study identifies apprehensions pertaining to AI’’s influence on professors’ skills, potential dehumanization of pedagogy, adverse effects on students, and the potential obsolescence of professors. These findings bear implications for the integration of AI in educational contexts, highlighting the necessity for further exploration in this evolving field.
Globalisation vs. Islamic Universality and the Politics of Translation
(Ain Shams University, Center for Developing English Language Teaching, 2024-04) Ahmed, Safa'a A
The world has been recently going through vast, overwhelming changes whose implications for different fields and disciplines are beyond understanding and interpretation at times. Many concepts, like 'Globalistaion', have been presented as the magic wand for countries and individuals alike to attain their aspirations, but peoples have attained more problems, wars, conflicts, ignorance, deterioration and sometimes even destruction. The Western perspective of Globalisation has failed to offer an acceptably successful model for a 'prosperous', 'free', 'democratic', happy globe. Since the relationship between language, politics and translation is steadfast, this study aims to challenge the inevitability of the Western models of Globalisation, to explore 'Islamic Universality' as a valuable global model, and to investigate the politics of translation in this regard. It is not my intention to compare between Globalisation as an ideology on the one hand and Islamic Universality as a religion on the other. It is rather a comparison between an idea and another. Its theoretical underpinnings delve into translation studies, especially Ahmed (2014; 2020) and political sciences, particularly Fukuyama's 'The End of History' (1989). It compares between the two concepts, revisiting and reinterpreting some events in history and making new relationships. Methodological tools include description, analysis, comparison and interpretation in a qualitative research design, using one of G.W. Bush's addresses and comparing it to a letter by Prophet Mohammed, may peace be upon him, as sample data representing the two discourses respectively. It concludes, for example, that it is either the 'end of history' for Globalisation or time for history to end as such; Time has come for the 'beginning of history' of an alternative universalist model. Thus the 'end of history' can be interpreted differently from Fukuyama's. Also, the domination ideology is deep-rooted in history, whose events cannot be logically interpreted without a theory of conspiracy, a theory harshly and unethically attacked to maintain Mankind's coma and stupefaction. Meanwhile, it uncovers the politics and the potential role of translation.
A multimodal analysis of the English-to-Arabic adaptation of Disney’s “The Bare Necessities”
(De Gruyter Mouton, 2024-05) Al Sawi, Islam
Due to the diverse roles that songs play in films and the growing need for movie distribution in various languages and cultures, the challenge of translating film songs from one language to another has become formidable. This research aims to apply the multimodal three-dimensional model proposed by Cui and Wang (2022. Film song translation: Verbal, vocal, and visual dimensions: On the Chinese translation of Amazing Grace in the film Forever Young. Babel 68(4). 565-585) to analyze the Arabic dubbed version of the 2016 film song "The Bare Necessities."The analysis revealed that, verbally, the Arabic dubbed version of the song maintained the gay emotional tone and length but made adaptations to the information, metaphors, and images used in the source. Vocally, similar to the English source song, the Arabic dubbed version did not adhere to 1 m and has a 4/4 time signature, aligning with the catchy melody and reinforcing the song's theme of embracing simplicity and savoring life's essentials effortlessly. Finally, visually, the analysis showed that the Arabic dubbed version matches the plot, characters and background pictures on the screen. The study contributed by incorporating a visual analysis of songs, adding camera elements, namely camera movement and shot size, to gain a better understanding of the scenes under analysis. The use of over-the-shoulder shots created a sense of conversation that complements the duet, and the pan right and left during dancing added a vividness that matches the verbal gay tone and vocal lightness of the song. This finding, considering visual camera elements, can be regarded as a suggested revision to the original multimodal framework introduced by Cui and Wang. Further implications are discussed.
Navigating the impact: a study of editors’ and proofreaders’ perceptions of AI tools in editing and proofreading
(Springer, 2024-03) Al Sawi, Islam; Alaa, Ahmed
Human editors and proofreaders now face a new, and possibly serious, challenge: the emergence of artifcial intelligence (AI) tools that some consider to be as efcient and precise as experts in editing/proofreading. This research aims to investigate editors’ and proofreaders’ perceptions of current AI tools. It examines whether editors/proofreaders view AI as an opportunity or a threat and considers their insights into the future of AI tools for them. The study collected qualitative data through email questionnaires from 17 professional editors and proofreaders purposively appointed from a society of professional editors and proofreaders in Egypt. The results revealed that the responses regarding AI for editors and proofreaders are generally mixed, with a range of both positive and negative perspectives. Some responses highlight the opportunities and benefts that AI tools can bring, such as increased efciency, time-saving, and improved productivity. Others express concerns about potential threats, such as the possibility of AI replacing humans, ethical considerations, and the need for continued human involvement in the editing/proofreading process. Overall, the attitudes toward AI tools for editing and proofreading refect a paradoxical view of the technology’s impact on the feld. The active engagement and participation of editors and proofreaders are essential for the successful implementation of AI technologies in editorial contexts.
METAPHORS AND GESTURES IN PRAYERS IN ISLAM
(Taylor and Francis, 2024-01) El-Wahsh, Manar
The Routledge Handbook of Language and Religion is the first ever comprehensive collection of research on religion and language, with over 35 authors from 15 countries, presenting a range of linguistic and discourse analytic research on religion and belief in different discourse contexts. The contributions show the importance of studying language and religion and for bringing together work in this area across sub-disciplines, languages, cultures, and geographical boundaries. The Handbook focuses on three major topics: Religious and Sacred Language, Institutional Discourse, and Religious Identity and Community. Scholars from a variety of different disciplinary backgrounds investigate these topics using a range of linguistic perspectives including Cognitive Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics, and Conversation Analysis. The data analysed in these chapters come from a variety of religious backgrounds and national contexts. Linguistic data from all the major world religions are included, with sacred texts, conversational data, and institutional texts included for analysis. The Handbook is intended to be useful for readers from different subdisciplines within linguistics, but also to researchers working in other disciplines including philosophy, theology, and sociology. Each chapter gives both a template for research approaches and suggestions for future research and will inspire readers at every stage of their career.
The analysis and quality assessment of translation strategies in subtitling culturally specific references: Feathers
(Elsevier BV, 2023-08) Alaa, Ahmed M; Al Sawi, Islam
Subtitling poses significant challenges, particularly when dealing with culturally specific/bound source texts (STs). This research paper aims to identify and assess the strategies employed by professional translators in rendering culturally specific references from Egyptian Arabic into English in the award-winning Egyptian movie, Feathers. In this study, Pedersen’s (2011) typology of translation strategies was utilized to identify the strategies employed, while Pedersen’s (2017) functional equivalence, acceptability, and readability (FAR) model was employed to assess the quality of the subtitles. The findings revealed the utilization of Pedersen’s suggested strategies, excluding the use of official equivalents, with a prevalent adoption of target-text-oriented (TT- oriented) strategies, such as substitution, generalization, and omission. Additionally, the results indicated that formality represents an additional translation strategy that coexists with other strategies, rather than being a media-specific constraint. Moreover, the quality assessment demonstrated that the majority of the subtitles exhibited high quality, with only a few minor errors observed, primarily related to functionality.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING TRAINING: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF SPEECH-TO-TEXT TECHNOLOGY
(CDELT,Ain Shams University, 2022-07) Ahmed, Safa'a A
As the world is rushing relentlessly to incorporate technology and artificial intelligence into various walks of life under allegations like 'development', researchers should investigate the potential impacts of such a movement from different perspectives. Simultaneous interpreting (SI) is no exception per se. The present study aimed to explore how useful the technological advances achieved in artificial intelligence can be in SI training (process and performance) through an experimental study of a speech-to-text technology. It adopted both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches using analysis, comparison, assessment, questionnaire and experiment as research tools. In this human-machine interaction, sample original English speeches (in Language B) were interpreted simultaneously into Arabic (Language A) by participants/trainees representing fourth year university students, with the help of a speech-to-text model. The significance of the study lies mainly in its potential implications for the industry, training and education, and research. It found out that STT in its current form is a failure and that the suggested model proved some success although the results were quite modest.
TECHNOLOGY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
(CDELT,Ain Shams University, 2022-04) Ahmed, Safa'a A
The insertion of technology in simultaneous interpreting has recently raised much controversy among, inter alia, practitioners, researchers and end-service users. Precipitous developments especially in Artificial Intelligence can affect not only the façade but also the core of the profession. The world's feverish propaganda for the inevitability of technological change together with the epidemic panic from machine IQ to reach 10,000 (while Einstein's was 150) have given impetus for this research to investigate the past and present of using technology in simultaneous interpreting and explore the challenges and opportunities for collaboration between the human and the machine from a multidisciplinary perspective. It is a qualitative study which uses description, comparison, and interpretation as research methods to analyse how the human and the machine react to the process of simultaneous interpreting and assess their performance and role. It concludes that there is not much prospect that machines can replace the human interpreter at least in the near future, and that technological developments should be directed to serve the field and human interpreters in a constructive way.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BIAS AND NEURAL MACHINE TRANSLATION: TRANSLATING HEAVILY_LOADED IDEOLOGICAL ENGLISH→ARABIC MESSAGES
(CDELT,Ain Shams University, 2022-10) Ahmed, Safa'a A
Bias, "an inclination, prejudice, preference or tendency towards or against a person, group, thing, idea or belief" (Murphy 2021), raises ethical questions whether in human or machine communication and it can have detrimental impacts on individuals and societies, e.g. criminal judgments. The deployment of AI systems in real-world settings has exposed various kinds of bias against certain social groups. The big number of research on bias in AI applications generally and the few studies on bias in neural machine translation (NMT) particularly have given the present study the momentum to further investigate the issue. It aims to examine bias in NMT through exploring the translation of some heavily-loaded ideological messages from English into Arabic. A multidisciplinary perspective deriving its tenets from translation studies, political sciences and computer science is utilized to explore bias in the translation of ideology by Google Translate API. It employs a qualitative approach using analysis, comparison and deduction as tools of research. It has reached some interesting findings, which came contrary to my initial expectations.
Quality Assessment of Simultaneous Interpreting: Teaching and Learning Perspective to English and Arabic Renditions
(18/08/2020) Ahmed, Safa'a A
Despite the unprecedented interest in interpreting teaching and training, there exists a gap in the knowledge of quality assessment of simultaneous interpreting (SI) in the academia. This study aims to investigate the assessment of the quality of SI from a teaching and learning perspective, in a new way especially of looking at holistic and subjective judgements. It raises three questions. How to make assessments? How to design a rubric? How to use assessments and rubrics to help teachers and learners get quality education? This multidisciplinary study derives its theoretical tenets from interpreting studies and interactive pedagogical assessment, employing case study and questionnaire methods. The data was collected from actual assessments of bi-directional English/Arabic renditions, given to final-year university learners of SI unit. Proper assessment and clear rubrics 'with some holistic and subjective' characteristics can help enhance teachers' assessment and learners' creative performance.
Translation and Shaping the Arab Identity in a Post-colonial Globalized World: A Multi-disciplinary Approach
(Canadian Center of Science and Education, 12/12/2016) Ahmed, Safa'a A
Conflicts over identity are old and they emerged explicitly during the European colonial expansion in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries and they accelerated remarkably with a recent globalization wave that started in the early1990s. Philosophers, psychologists, mathematicians, logicians, politicians, among others, have found in the term "identity" a vivid niche where they can approach and research the issue. The relationship between identity, globalization, language and translation is so steadfast that a fresh perspective on the role of translation in this respect is urgently required. Hence comes the present research. It hypothesizes that there is a conflict between Arab identity and globalization and this is manifested in the role played by translation. This paper is an interdisciplinary examination of the role of translation in shaping the Arab identity in a post-colonial, globalized world, taking concepts from post-colonial translation studies, pragmatics, post-colonial theory of international relations and Samuel Huntington's theory of the Clash of Civilizations. It employs a dual methodology of content analysis and comparative study between English texts and their Arabic translations. It aims to reveal the nature of this role. Through the analysis of data, it concludes that translation has played a 'shameful' role in shaping the identity of the Arab World in the post-colonial era and that globalization is a new form of Western colonialism which targets the identities of other nations.
Omission in Simultaneous Interpreting: A Multidisciplinary Perspective to U.S. Presidential Debates
(Ain Shams University - Centre for Developing English Language, 2019-07) Ahmed, Safa'a A
This paper attempts a new categorisation of omission in simultaneous interpreting through exploring and investigating omission in the simultaneous interpreting of U.S. presidential debates from English into Arabic in order to improve the interpreter's performance. This is not an attempt, however, to answer the question why the interpreter uses omission, intentionally or impromptu, because it is not a cognitive study of the reasons why this phenomenon occurs. Instead, it aims to evaluate omission in real, professional contexts to determine how far omissions convey the functions of presidential debates. The data is collected from the second 2016 U.S. presidential debate between the two candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. An interdisciplinary approach combining between interpreting studies (especially Pym's Risk Analysis 2008) and political sciences (basically Benoit's Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse 2017) is employed. The paper reaches the conclusion that there is a gap in understanding omission in interpreting a discourse type as such from English into Arabic and that interpreters used omission in their renditions, a matter which affected the three functions of presidential debates. Omission should be accounted for in the light of an interdisciplinary approach combining between a multi-layered linguistic and pragmatic analysis, interpreting studies and a functional theory of political campaign discourse. The product and its potential impact(s) for the aims of communication determine the level of functionality entailed in the interpretation: 'functional', 'nonfunctional, or 'semi-functional''. If the interpreter becomes aware of the functions of this discourse type and how it behaves, then his performance should presumably be improved; and at this particular point, further empirical, experimental research is recommended.
Postcolonialism and Foreignisation as a Translation Strategy: A New Perspective to the Arab Family Values in Translated English Films
(Ain Shams University - Centre for Developing English Language, 2019-04) Ahmed, Safa'a A
By Dr. Safa'a Ahmed Associate Professor of Interpreting and Translation Faculty of Languages, MSA University Abstract The intricate relationship between translation and mass media is particularly evident in the light of globalization, where the Arab media has heavily relied on translated materials as globalised, 'modernized', up-to-date and almost ready-made sources for its contents. The present paper aims to investigate 'postcolonialism' and the use of 'foreignisation' as a translation strategy in mass media and explore the latter's role in introducing some foreignised family values and roles alien to the identity of Arab societies from a new multidisciplinary perspective. Therefore, it raises three questions. What is the role played by the translation of English films in mass media in introducing some foreignised values alien to the Arab families bonding and values? How can foreignisation, as a translation strategy suggested by postcolonialists to resist colonialism, contribute itself to viewers' conceptions or misconceptions of social reality? What do the Arab youths think of this role? This qualitative and quantitative study uses content analysis and comparison to analyse the content of an English film and its Arabic translation, and questionnaire. Also, some secondary data, represented in visual images taken from the film Mrs. Doubtfire and thought to add high value to the research discussion and conclusion, complements the primary data. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach based mainly on Niranjana's postcolonial translation theory and Gerbner's Cultivation Theory in mass communication; images are anlaysed using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. My intention is, by no means, to apply the Cultivation Theory in order to measure the effect the repetitive exposure to TV has on family ties. It is rather to present new perspectives at the level of translation theorization, topic and the multidisciplinary approach adopted. The analysis and discussion of data and results reveal that contrary to what many postcolonial advocates claim that the translator should adopt a foreignisation strategy, it enhances colonialism, or neocolonialism, when used in the translation of English texts into Arabic, or into what they call the 'less hegemonic languages'. The translation strategy used and mass media, (traditionally represented in TV), have both challenged and undermined some of the Arab family values and roles.
Translation as a Soft Power to Westernise Local Identities: An Arab Perspective
(Ain Shams University - Centre for Developing English Language, 2019-10) Ahmed, Safa'a A
Translation theory and practice have become so westernised that there is almost one, and one only, way for the flow of information regarding the discipline. In a globalised world, translation can be used as a form of soft power to serve the dominant power's interests. This study aims to investigate translation theory and practice as a soft power from an Arab point of view. In so doing, it raises questions about the extent to which translation as such is westernized, and about the implications for local identities. The study's theoretical framework is based on Venuti's concepts of 'the scandals of translation', 'domestication' and 'foreignisation'. It is a qualitative study with different tools of analysis. First, it utilises a descriptive approach to the history of translation theories. Second, it analyses and compares the content of source texts written in the hegemonic language of the Empire, English, and their corresponding target texts in the less hegemonic language, Arabic, and vice versa. The implications are 'scandalous' on the Arab identity and image.
Crosslinguistic influence on EFL students’ writing: A contrastive analysis study of interlanguage errors
(Asian Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, 2020) Gibriel, Mariam
One of the basic tenets in language learning is native language interference. Every language has its unique structure; which is usually brought on while learning a new language. This notion has been unequivocally recognized and accepted, for example, individuals can easily distinguish a French speaker of English from a native speaker. However, it was not until the 1960s that this notion began to be driven towards a more scientific analysis. Corder was the pioneer in error analysis; he developed a new vision in dealing with errors. Corder (1982) ascribed most of the errors committed by non native learners of languages to language interference. He explained in detail how learners of other languages avoid language errors by conveying messages successfully. Learners tend to use two procedures; the first is message adjustment; where learners tailor their messages to fit the resources they already acquire. This procedure also entails “topic avoidance”; which is a refusal to deliver or convey any message due to linguistic inadequacy. Some learners may attempt to hover around the question and give a rather different but relevant response. Corder defines this procedure as “semantic avoidance”. The second type of strategy is resource expansion strategies; where learners attempt to increase their resources to deliver meaningful messages. This idea is supported by Kavaliauskiene (2009) who explained that lack of resources may lead to error transfer; in which a learner may resort to native language structure to keep a conversation going. There are two types of language transfer: positive (facilitation) and negative transfer (interference). The former occurs when the native language (NL) and the target language (TL) have parallel structures while the latter. negative transfer (interference), occurs when the NL and the TL have diverse structures (Wilkins, 1972). Selinker (1972) was the first to coin the term interlanguage. To Selinker, interlanguage refers to the language produced when the learner attempts to articulate sentences of a target language; this type of utterance is different from the target language structure; the variation of structure is attributed to the learners’ native language; hence, the language produced in this situation is called “interlanguage”; which serves as a mediator between the learner’s native language and the target language. The learner in the interlanguage mode tends to keep some of the native language rules and uses them in the target language. Selinker (1972) referred to this process as “fossilization”, which is not bound to a certain age or a specific linguistic competence. Interlanguage errors can be attributed to misconceptions or insufficient knowledge of the target language (Ridha, 2012). It occurs when the learner attempts to build up his/her understanding of the target language; due to their limited experience and lack of sufficient knowledge of the nature of the target language, learners tend to lean to their native language structure (Edrogan, 2005).
Agency in Search of a Narrative: Reconstructing Egyptian Identity via Facebook
(Cairo University, 2019) Alakhdar, Ghada Mohamad Ali Hassan
The production of meaning and organizing human experience to construct an identity yields a complexification when deployed on Facebook. Narrative Identity theory, with its three stages of prefiguration, configuration and refiguration, as proposed by Ricoeur provide a framework for unpacking the process of identity construction for social media users. Agency, both as promised potential by the literature on social media and its structure as well as by the imaginative experience entailed in narrativisation, lead to the ambiguities of empowerment and fragmentation. This study draws on digital anthropology and narrative identity theory in order to analyze a selection of posts from three widely visited Facebook pages with historical content. The construction of meaning through user engagement with text takes on wider significance imposed by the post- modern structure of the Facebook itself with implications on user construction of identity.

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