The Arabic and English languages have developed along separate lines over the centuries. Thus, it is no surprise that even apart from purely cultural elements, there are distinctive characteristics of the two languages that pose particular problems to native speakers one of one language attempting to learn the other. Written by an international panel of linguists and writers, the contributors to Diversity in Language were participants in the First International Conference on Contrastive Rhetoric, held at the American University in Cairo in 1999. The book discusses distinctive features that make the Arabic language especially difficult for English speakers to understand fully and intuitively. Comparative studies of English and Arabic, including research on the acquisition of Arabic or English as a second language, underscore the concept of diversity.
Contributors also investigative stylistics, a major source of diversity between the two languages.
Practical observations and suggestions will help teachers of Arabic and English as a second language enable students to better understand their second language and become more persuasive and effective in using it. Diversity in Language is a welcome addition to the bookshelves of scholars and students of Arabic, contrastive rhetoric, and linguistics. Teachers of English as a foreign language, even if their students are not primarily from an Arab-speaking background, will likewise benefit from the insights made in these contrastive students. The State of the Nominal Sentence. Summary in English 2.