Core Vocabularies: Same or different for Bilingual Language Learning and Literacy Skill building with Symbols?

Amatullah KadousE.A. Draffan, M. Wald, A.I. Ahmad , N. Zeinoun , D. Banes, O.Sabia & D. Lawand

Funded by an NPRP award [NPRP 6 - 1046 - 2 - 427] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of The Qatar Foundation)

• There is a growing number of individuals who can benefit from AAC

• Learning disabilities are the most common primary disability for Arab speakers

• 34% of those with another disability also have a learning disability. (Zetterström - 2012)

• Their needs are being met by the use of externally developed AAC symbols systems

• Lack of core vocabularies

Project Background

Sample images used in AAC settings thanks to ARASAAC Symbols

Sample images used in AAC settings thanks to Tawasol Symbols

Project Aims• To develop a freely available Arabic symbol

dictionary suitable for use by individuals who have a wide range of communication difficulties.

• To develop a set of symbols that are culturally, linguistically and environmentally appropriate for AAC users in Qatar and the Arab world.

Linguistic Issues for Arabic AAC • Lack of Arabic core vocabularies• Diglossic nature of Arabic• Many dialects across Arab region (MSA, Egyptian,

Lebanese, Moroccan, and Kuwaiti)• Bilingual situation - communication charts and

devices based on English linguistic rules and Westernised concepts/imagery

• Arabic morpho-syntactic structure will affect Symbol to text translation

Sample images used in AAC settings thanks to Picture Communication Symbols (PCS)

Symbol to Text: Arabic vs. English

Sample images used in AAC settings thanks to ARASAAC and Tawasol Symbols

Same Across Environments? Why a local core vocabulary was needed?• Vast differences in linguistic structures• Errors in available symbol sentences • Requests for symbols not available • Requests from teachers, therapists and other

researchers in the field• Evidence

Non-symbolic as well as symbolic forms of communication are culturally dependent” (Huer, 2000).

Need to adapt AAC resources to meet characteristics of the Arabic written system, and to address the presence of diglossia and a lack of culturally appropriate vocabulary (Patel and Dakwar-Khamis, 2005)

Background on Core Vocabularies • 100-200 most common words make up 80% of the

total words used to communicate (Hill, Baker & Devylder, 2000)

• Gives AAC users independence and allows them to guide the conversation (Hill, Baker & Devylder, 2000)

• Tendency to select concrete nouns that are easy to display as symbols (Schlosser & Sigafoos, 2002) vs functional words to generate language.

Vocabulary

Core “Common words that can be used across more than one

setting” e.g. more, here, look

Fringe“Words only used in one setting but are critical in that setting”

e.g. Camel, Desert, Doha Reference: AAC: A way of thinking. Supporting Augmentative & Alternative Communication Technologies in the Classroom Second Edition.

Arabic Core Vocabulary: Collecting

• Visited 7 centres/organisations across Doha to collect most commonly used symbols/words

• Collected from classrooms, progress notes, AAC devices, therapists and parents

• 1500+ words in total

Limitations of Tawasol Core Vocabulary

• Stripped of grammatical markers; prefixes, suffixes, affixes e.g =أم أمي

My mother mother= pronoun frequency• Stripped of diacritics = change in meaning due to

homonyms e.g / عمل عمل= workplace (noun) vs to do (verb)• Stripped of context e.g. bathroom routine contains

word “pull down” designer oblivious to bathroom context

• Based on AAC lists

Arabic Core Vocabulary: Comparing

Arabic AAC list vs Arabic language listsCompared against 3 other lists (minimum 500 words

per list) and finally with a 4th list used by therapists in Lebanon

• Written and spoken material (Buckwalter & Parkinson, 2014),

• Web and newspaper data (Kilgarriff et al, 2014),

• Reading lists based on curriculum (Oweini & Hazoury, 2010; Zeinoun, N. 2005 & Qatar Supreme Educational Council (SEC) – reading list Grade 1, 2, 3 and kindergarten)

Each entry given a POS for comparison

Arabic Core Vocabulary: Comparing

Arabic AAC list vs English lists

Compared against 3 other lists (minimum 500 words per list)

• Adult AAC list (Beukelman et al, 1984)

• school based vocabulary - Dynamic Learning Maps core vocabulary (Dennis et al, 2013)

• Word frequencies in written and spoken English based - British National Corpus (Leech & Rayson, 2014)

Each entry given a POS for comparative purposes

Arabic Core Vocabulary: Consolidating

• 1500 words vs 500 words initially• Started with 500 - that was “all that was needed” -

Doha expert • Participants came back to us needing more complex

words e.g. monotheism! • Arabic AAC in it’s infancy but participants’ requests

to move into literacy and environment• Consolidation – religious and prayer symbols, The

Prophet book, and curriculum based symbols

Key Findings

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an En

glish

DLM En

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Doha

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Oweini-Hazo

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0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

English vs Arabic POS

adjective adverb conjunction determiner expressioninterjection noun preposition pronoun verb

Key Findings• Arabic word lists similar in POS make up to Arabic

AAC lists• Nouns in Arabic core because pronouns connected

as affixes and suffixes = classified as nouns• Use of many verbal nouns in Arabic may also skew

results

-أن� that

- أن�اI/me

-كان�was

- ذ�ه�ب�go

- كرة�ball

ار�ة� - سيcar

- علىon/to

- موز�ة�banana

�لى to - إ - أر�ا�د�want

05

1015202530

Top Arabic Core Vocabulary Entries

Implications• Core vocabulary for language learning and literacy

not the same for English and Arabic • Communication boards will look different in Arabic • Composition of Arabic words and position in

sentences can change so matching symbol to text problematic

CommuniKate board with ARASAAC and Tawasol Symbols

• Email: info@tawasolsymbols.org• Website: www.tawasolsymbols.org• Facebook: Tawasol- “Arabic Symbol Dictionary for

AAC users”• Blog:

www.access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/blog/symboldictionary/• Attend our other presentation: “Developing an Arabic Symbol Dictionary for AAC

users: Bridging the Cultural, Social and Linguistic Gap.” @Pier 5 8:30am Thursday

Connect With Us

Thanks go to ARASAAC Symbols for their support http://arasaac.org/

References• Abu-Rabia, S., Share, D., and Mansour, M. S. (2003). Word recognition and basic cognitive processes among reading-disabled and

normal readers in Arabic. Reading and writing, 16(5), 423-442.• Baker, B., Hill, K., and Devylder, R. (2000). Core vocabulary is the same across environments. In California State University at

Northridge Conference.• Beukelman, D. R., Yorkston, K. M., Poblete, M., and Naranjo, C. (1984). Frequency of Word Occurrence in Communication

Samples Produced by Adult Communication Aid Users. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders,49(4), 360-367.• Beukelman, D., McGinnis, J., and Morrow, D. (1991). Vocabulary selection in augmentative and alternative communication.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 7(3), 171-185.• Buckwalter, T., and Parkinson, D. (2014). A frequency dictionary of Arabic: Core vocabulary for learners. Routledge.• Dennis, A., Erickson, K., and Hatch, P. (2013). The Dynamic Learning Maps core vocabulary: Overview [technical review]. Retrieved

July, 2016 http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds/files/vocabulary-overview • Huer, M. B. (2000). Examining perceptions of graphic symbols across cultures: Preliminary study of the impact of culture/ethnicity.”

Augmentative and Alternative Communication 16 (3): 180–185. • Kilgarriff, A. (1997). Using word frequency lists to measure corpus homogeneity and similarity between corpora. Proceedings 5th ACL workshop

on very large corpora. Beijing and Hong Kong.• Kilgarriff A., Charalabopoulou F., Gavrilidou M., Bondi Johannessen J., Khalil S., Johansson Kokkinakis S., Lew R., Sharoff S., Vadlapudi R,

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• Leech, G., and Rayson, P. (2014). Word frequencies in written and spoken English: Based on the British National Corpus. Routledge.• Oweini, A., and Hazoury, K. (2010). Towards a sight word list in Arabic. International Review of Education, 56(4), 457-478.• Patel, R., and Khamis-Dakwar, R. (2005). An AAC training program for special education teachers: A case study of Palestinian Arab teachers in

Israel. Augmentative and Alternative communication, 21(3), 205-217.• Schlosser, R., and Sigafoos, J. (2002). Selecting graphic symbols for an initial request lexicon: Integrative review. Augmentative and Alternative

Communication, 18(2), 102-123.• Shamsan, M. A. H. A., and Attayib, A. M. (2015). Inflectional Morphology in Arabic and English: A Contrastive Study. International Journal of

English Linguistics, 5(2), 139.• Stuart, S., Beukelman, D., and King, J. (1997). Vocabulary use during extended conversations by two cohorts of older adults. Augmentative and

alternative communication, 13(1), 40-47.• Van Tatenhove, G. (2005, revised October 2007). Normal Language Development, Generative Language and AAC. Retrieved March 2016

http://www.texasat.net/users/0011/Webinars%202014/AAC/1%20%20Normal%20Language%20%20AAC.pdf • Yorkston, K., Dowden, P., Honsinger, M., Marriner, N., & Smith, K. (1988). A comparison of standard and user vocabulary lists. Augmentative

and Alternative Communication, 4(4), 189-210.• Zeinoun, N. (2005) Proposition d’une liste de vocabulaire et d’un pictogramme adaptés à des enfants libanais agés entre 4 et 7 ans. Master’s

Thesis – unpublished Université Saint-Joseph Faculté De Medecine Institut Supérieur D’orthophonie. Lebanon.