Walking the less trodden path: An account of bilingual research experiences Mariam Attia University of Manchester ‘ Doing Research Multilingually’ July 7 th, 2010 © TemplatesWise.com

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 Research 1.Research training 2.Research plan 3.Data collection 4.Data analysis 5.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

Thank you