Papers by Belqes A Al-Sowaidi
Re-Tooling Research Pedagogy in Higher Education Contexts
This chapter examines how final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students at four Global South... more This chapter examines how final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students at four Global South universities use digital and AI-enhanced research tools in research modules.
AI-Digital Divide in Yemeni and South African Higher Education: Towards an Inclusive Policy-Oriented Approach
This chapter explores the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on higher education, highlightin... more This chapter explores the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on higher education, highlighting emerging issues around equity and digital inclusion. Drawing on a mixed-methods study at the Two Oceans Graduate Institute (South Africa) and at Aden and Taiz Universities (Yemen), the research analyses 198 student surveys and 15 lecturer focus-group discussions. Findings indicate that AI-enabled tools such as virtual tutors, writing assistants, and automated feedback systems can enhance learner engagement and academic support when tailored to local needs. Yet persistent barriers such as unstable connectivity, limited device ownership, uneven digital skills, and fragile governance structures continue to hinder equitable integration. This chapter addresses these gaps by proposing an equity-centred, seven-pillar framework that translates empirical evidence into strategic interventions, enabling higher-education institutions to integrate inclusive AI solutions within their structural and socio-technical contexts.
Reinterpretation of the Words Falyanzur and Tha'am in Qs 'Abasa Verse 24 to Build Public Nutrition Awareness, 2025
The Quran contains the concept of balanced nutrition in several of its verses, including in Surah... more The Quran contains the concept of balanced nutrition in several of its verses, including in Surah Al-Baqarah 168, Surah Al-A'raf verse 31 and Surah Abasa verse 24. The interpretation of Surah Abasa verse 24 and its relation to nutrition there are still differences among scholars of interpretation. This research uses a qualitative approach, this type of research is descriptive analytical. The term linguistics refers to the science that studies language and analyzes it scientifically. The reinterpretation theory used in this research is Abdullah Saeed's theory. The word nazara and its derivations have a dominant meaning related to the activity of the five senses, namely vision. However, not only limited to physical observation, this seeing activity also involves the heart and mind, which makes it more than just ordinary observation. The word tha'am and its various derivatives are mentioned 48 times in the Quran, and cover various aspects related to food, including the type, method of consumption, and its role in daily life. In this study, researchers want to provide a reinterpretation of the 2 words so that the meaning of the verse becomes an order to humans to pay attention to the nutritional content of their food. The order that humans pay more attention to their food patterns and portions so as to avoid various diseases due to unbalanced nutrition.
Promoting Inclusivity and Multiculturalism: The Role of Muslim Scholars in Cape Town's Community Peacebuilding, 2024
Religion plays a significant role in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, as demonstrated durin... more Religion plays a significant role in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, as demonstrated during the July 2021 riots in South Africa, when religious leaders actively contributed to reducing violence, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal. This study investigates the responses of Cape Town Muslim clerics and imams to the crisis through their sermons, focusing on their contributions to South Africa’s peacebuilding initiatives and the promotion of multiculturalism. Specifically, this study examines the Friday Nasiha (advice sermon) titled “Prayer Reflections on the Political Crisis of Our Country”, delivered by Imam Rashied Omer on Friday, 30 July 2021 (19 Dhul-Hijjah 1442) at the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town. Nasiha is analyzed within the framework of maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah (objectives of Islamic law) to evaluate its role in advancing peacebuilding efforts during the July 2021 unrest. Qualitative thematic analysis is used to explain how Islamic principles such as zakat (almsgiving) and ṣadaqah (charitable giving) address immediate socio-economic challenges and long-term structural justice. The findings underscore the role of religious leaders in times of conflict. The study concludes that Islamic teachings, when effectively applied in crisis situations, can significantly enhance peacebuilding efforts and support structural reforms in diverse societies.
This study aims to examine the concept of graduateness in tertiary
Islamic institutions and its e... more This study aims to examine the concept of graduateness in tertiary
Islamic institutions and its essential integration into the curriculum of
Islamic higher education. The study sheds light on the connections
between program content, teaching methodologies, and the cultivation of
graduateness in the context of Islamic education at the International Peace
College South Africa (IPSA), emphasizing the curriculum’s role in
enhancing values and ethics alongside employability preparedness. The
study investigates the BA program at IPSA over three years (2020-2023).
Employing the frameworks of Coetzee’s categorization of Graduate
Attributes, Biggs’ Constructive Alignment, and the Technological
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), the analysis explores attitudes
toward curriculum content, teaching, and learning through the lens of
graduateness development. Results from the questionnaire revealed a
statistically significant difference in the development of graduate
attributes at IPSA, influenced notably by thematic content (p = 0.0018). In
addition, there was a strong correlation between students’ and lecturers’
perceptions (r = 0.900, p < 0.0001), indicating effective alignment in the
understanding of educational goals.
This article aims to assess and evaluate the quality of two recent Arabic
translations of George ... more This article aims to assess and evaluate the quality of two recent Arabic
translations of George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945), the first one by
Mohammed Hasan Alawi (2019) and the second one by Hiba Fathi (2020)
using House's (2015) Translation Quality Assessment model. A mixed
approach of qualitative and quantitative methods was employed. The
qualitative method involved conducting a comparative analysis between the
profiles of the source text and the two translations employing House's model
(2015) to identify mismatches at the register parameter. The quantitative
method was employed to quantify the overtly erroneous errors and
determine whether statistically significant differences exist in the mean
number of these errors between the two translations. The findings of the
study show numerous mismatches, particularly at the three dimensions of
register (field, tenor, and mode) which to some extent affected the ideational
and interpersonal components of the textual function in both translations.
The findings also indicate statistically significant differences between the
two translations in terms of the frequency of overtly erroneous errors. The
second translation exhibited a higher number of such errors compared to the
first translation, primarily resulting from the breach of the target language
system. The study concluded that the second translation was less adequate
compared to the first translation.
This study investigates how reframing strategies and linguistic aspects are employed to legitimiz... more This study investigates how reframing strategies and linguistic aspects are employed to legitimize and normalize ideologically loaded narratives introduced by the Yemeni internationally recognized government (YIRG), with a particular focus on the impact of dominant ideologies and the translator's political and social affiliations on the target texts. Combining frameworks from different fields, the study draws upon Baker's (2006) narrative theory and Jeffrie's (2010) model of critical stylistics to provide a comprehensive understanding of the translation process and its management during conflict. Analyzing English-language materials translated into Arabic, the study utilizes source English materials, including news, reports, and opinions, from Western media outlets. The corresponding Arabic translations are drawn from media belonging to the YIRG. The study concludes that the YIRG's dominant ideology significantly constrains the political translation process during the conflict. This ideology is reflected in the reframing of narratives to align with the adopted ideology, encompassing the repositioning and labeling of participants according to the prevailing ideology. Moreover, textual choices, grammatical and semantic, influence the translator's representation of events, word choice, and pragmatic references to the opposing party through deictic expressions.
Journal of Language Teaching and Research
This study investigates the attitudes of trainee interpreters towards their training programmes a... more This study investigates the attitudes of trainee interpreters towards their training programmes at Yemeni universities. 61 interpreters in Taiz province participated in the study. A 16-item questionnaire was designed to explore their attitudes towards their programmes. The findings of this study show that the interpreters are not satisfied with the current programmes. The results also show that the programme does not adequately enhance the interpreting competence of would-be interpreters. The programme is mainly concerned with the enhancement of the linguistic and cultural competencies, paying less attention to other components of interpreting competence such as instrumental, psycho-physiological, and strategic. The results also show that respondents are not satisfied with the content of instructional modules, activities used in the training, the time allocated for practicums, and the amount of technology integration. This study has also investigated the interpreting directionality ...
Theory and Practice in Language Studies
This study aims to design a task-based e-Course for teaching computer-aided translation technolog... more This study aims to design a task-based e-Course for teaching computer-aided translation technology in a higher education context. It also investigates the impact of the e-Course on enhancing the instrumental competence of trainees, as reflected from their use of translation products. This study employs mixed qualitative and quantitative methods using descriptive statistics, pre-post paired sample tests, and an analysis of the translation process. Results of the paired-sample tests showed a noticeable increase in the scores of trainees. The difference in means between the pre and post-tests is statistically significant at P < 0.05. The descriptive statistics of errors have also shown that translation errors decreased dramatically after completing the e-Course. Analysis of the translation process indicated that trainees developed a noticeable mastery over translation competence when employing various CAT tools in the translation process. The study recommends that translator trainin...
International Journal of Linguistics and Communication, 2014
The present paper tests the general tendency in translation studies that translated texts are mor... more The present paper tests the general tendency in translation studies that translated texts are more explicit than source texts or non-translated texts in the same language. It is basically based on Blum-Kulka's (1986) hypothesis which argues that explicitness is a translation universal. The hypothesis has been tested with reference to a considerable number of languages such as German, English, Persian, etc. The present paper attempts to find out the validity of Blum-Kulka's (1986) hypothesis in English-Arabic translation. The translation of Gibran's The Garden of the Prophet has been taken as a case study and the recurrence of explicitation is investigated at the lexico-grammatical, pragmatic and translation-inherent levels. Using an eclectic approach based on Blum-Kulka's (1986) hypothesis and the refinements of the hypothesis as suggested by Klaudy (2008), Pym (2005), Heltai (2005) and Schmied and Schäffler (1997), the paper suggests that explicitness is reflected in the Arabic translated texts at the grammatical, lexical, pragmatic and translation-inherent levels.
European Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 2021
The present study reports on the use of project-based learning in teaching business translation a... more The present study reports on the use of project-based learning in teaching business translation at the undergraduate level at two Yemeni universities; namely, Al-Saeed University and Taiz University. Two groups of students, one control and the other experimental, were selected. Both groups took a pre-test in business translation in which they were asked to translate several texts from Arabic into English, and vice versa. After the pre-test, the two groups completed a 3-month business translation course. Project-based translation training was used with the experimental group. The control group covered the content of the course in a traditional manner. Both groups were asked to take a post-test in business translation after completion of the course. The study concluded that the experimental group that completed the project-based training showed more progress than the control group. The difference between the mean of the two groups was found to be significant, at p < 0.05. Members o...
This study aims to design a task-based e-Course for teaching computer-aided translation technolog... more This study aims to design a task-based e-Course for teaching computer-aided translation technology in a higher education context. It also investigates the impact of the e-Course on enhancing the instrumental competence of trainees, as reflected from their use of translation products. This study employs mixed qualitative and quantitative methods using descriptive statistics, pre-post paired sample tests, and an analysis of the translation process. Results of the paired-sample tests showed a noticeable increase in the scores of trainees. The difference in means between the pre and post-tests is statistically significant at P < 0.05. The descriptive statistics of errors have also shown that translation errors decreased dramatically after completing the e-Course. Analysis of the translation process indicated that trainees developed a noticeable mastery over translation competence when employing various CAT tools in the translation process. The study recommends that translator training in a higher education context in this age of globalization and localisation should familiarise trainees with the technical aspects of the industry and align with the industry's needs and specifications. In this sense, this study culminates in the design of a learning prototype for the teaching of various desktop and cloud-based computer-aided translation tools and not only those used by big companies in a blended, hybrid or fully online environment.
Translating drama is an area in the discipline of Translation Studies that has been ignored compa... more Translating drama is an area in the discipline of Translation Studies that has been ignored compared with the translation of other literary genres. This study contributes to this neglected area by exploring equivalence in translation and the difficulties from English into Arabic and the challenges that faced translators through the process of translating a play steeped in the western culture and tradition. According to Bassnett & Lefevere (2001), some scholars claim that in translating drama, translators have to encounter more difficulties than other literary genres. Arms and the Man has been selected as a case study for the analysis of the problems. The translators of dramatic texts in particular will encounter various problems at different levels due to the nature of the literary genre. Based on Koller's (1979) classification of translation equivalence, the study investigates the problems of the concept of equivalence at the denotative, connotative, textnormative, pragmatic and formal levels.
Injustice and violence are rife in Cape Town, particularly against women who are disproportionate... more Injustice and violence are rife in Cape Town, particularly against women who are disproportionately impacted by such issues. The present study investigates the experiences of Muslim widows living in Cape Town and highlights the unfair treatment this group often receives, indicating a critical need for social interventions. This study is qualitative in nature which involved face-to-face interviews with ten Muslim widows. It adopts the Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah approach in navigating the experiences of these ten Capetonian widows and draws on the ideas of Al-Ghazālī (1998); Al-Shāțibī (1992) and Al-Qarāḍawi (2005) who offer an understanding of the maṣlaḥah as a fundamental organising principle of the Sharīʿah in all aspects of life. This study concludes that none of the participants received fair treatment, as outlined by the objectives of the Sharīʿah.
Students who are studying translation face challenges and unique problems when they translate tex... more Students who are studying translation face challenges and unique problems when they translate texts from Arabic into English and vice versa. Therefore, a study of translation errors is needed to investigate the most common types of translation errors that affect the process of translating from Arabic into English, and vice versa. The purpose of this study is to examine the translation errors of fourth year students in the Bachelor of Arts program in translation studies at Al-Saeed University (SU) in Yemen. During SU"s academic year 2021-2022, data was collected in order to determine the extent to which the formal training of students contributes to the errors they make during the translation process. This study argues that the problems encountered by translators can be overcome or minimised if factors such as literary genre, gender, and directionality in the process of translation are considered. It was concluded that there is a relationship between the directionality of the translation (i.e., Arabic to English, and vice versa) and errors. The outcomes of this study will be used to improve translation courses and graduate translation competency in Yemen. This study recommends that teaching materials should be updated, and that all translation sub-competencies be assessed.
This study investigates the translation of the Qur'anic allusions in the poetry of Mahmoud Darwis... more This study investigates the translation of the Qur'anic allusions in the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and how transtextuality has shaped his literary work. This study's analysis of the translation of Mahmoud Darwish's poem, ʾanā Yūsuf yā ʾabī incorporated Ritva Leppihalme's (1994) classification of references as well as Julia Kristeva's (1980) and Gérard Genette's (1992) transtextuality models to construct a translation transtextualbased model. It is mainly qualitative in nature, which allows the translation to be analyzed based on an eclectic approach. This study concludes that the literal translation of the poem captures only the surface meaning of the original. Therefore, the translation lacks the textual dimensions that connect it to the original text and to the poem's Qur'anic references.
The present study reports on the use of project-based learning in teaching
business translation a... more The present study reports on the use of project-based learning in teaching
business translation at the undergraduate level at two Yemeni universities;
namely, Al-Saeed University and Taiz University. Two groups of students,
one control and the other experimental, were selected. Both groups took a
pre-test in business translation in which they were asked to translate several
texts from Arabic into English, and vice versa. After the pre-test, the two
groups completed a 3-month business translation course. Project-based
translation training was used with the experimental group. The control
group covered the content of the course in a traditional manner. Both
groups were asked to take a post-test in business translation after
completion of the course. The study concluded that the experimental group
that completed the project-based training showed more progress than the
control group. The difference between the mean of the two groups was
found to be significant, at p < 0.05. Members of the experimental group were
also interviewed about the project-based approach adopted in the
programme to gain insights into its pros and cons.
The present study investigates to what extent three translators of Surat Yaseen were able to pres... more The present study investigates to what extent three translators of Surat Yaseen were able to preserve the texture of the Quranic text in their translations. The study is based on an eclectic approach that combined linguistic and translation theories. In particular, the study is based on de Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) ’s standards of textuality. Those standards are cohesion, coherence, intentionality, informativity, acceptability, intentionality and intertexuality. In our analysis of the seven standards in the three translations, we have also used a number of theoretical points derived from Halliday and Hasan (1976), Nida (1964), Martin and Rose (2003) among others. The study concluded that the translators encountered various problems in the
renditions of the above standards. In some contexts, the violation of a standard has led to the distortion of the Quranic message in the target language. The study has recommended that the translator of the Qur'an should supplement his translations with a lengthy list of explanations, footnotes, endnotes and glossaries based on authentic Quranic exegesis.
The present paper tests the general tendency in translation studies that translated texts are mor... more The present paper tests the general tendency in translation studies that translated texts are more explicit than source texts or non-translated texts in the same language. It is basically based on Blum-Kulka's (1986) hypothesis which argues that explicitness is a translation universal. The hypothesis has been tested with reference to a considerable number of languages such as German, English, Persian, etc. The present paper attempts to find out the validity of Blum-Kulka's (1986) hypothesis in English-Arabic translation. The translation of Gibran's The Garden of the Prophet has been taken as a case study and the recurrence of explicitation is investigated at the lexico-grammatical, pragmatic and translation-inherent levels. Using an eclectic approach based on Blum-Kulka's (1986) hypothesis and the refinements of the hypothesis as suggested by Klaudy (2008), Pym (2005), Heltai (2005) and Schmied and Schäffler (1997), the paper suggests that explicitness is reflected in the Arabic translated texts at the grammatical, lexical, pragmatic and translation-inherent levels.
The Holy Qurʾān, like the Bible, is an acknowledged literary masterpiece. Its linguistic and aest... more The Holy Qurʾān, like the Bible, is an acknowledged literary masterpiece. Its linguistic and aesthetic vivacity with an amalgam of religious beliefs, moral values, religious social orthodoxy and historical backgrounds pose a great challenge to any translator and make the task overwhelmingly arduous, if not unattainable. The study aims at examining the problems the Qurʾān translators encounter while translating near-synonyms from Arabic into English. It is based on the translations of two professional translators namely, Yusuf Ali and T.B. Irving. The translations provide an empirical basis for the discussion of the problems while translating Qurʾānnic texts into English. The corpus for the present study includes the translations of four near-synonymous pairs namely, ghayth and maṭar, al-ḥilf and al-qasm, bakhīl and shaḥīḥ and ʿāqir and ʿaqīm in their Qurʾānic context. The two translated texts are compared to determine to which extent the translations reflect the referential and the connotative meaning of the original Qurʾānic text as well as to which extent they maintain the textuality standards such as cohesion, coherence, informativity, situationality and acceptability, intentionality and intertextuality. In short, the study sets out to identify the roblematic areas in the translated Qurʾānic texts at the lexical and textual levels with a view to determining what makes one translation better than the other, or what brings one translation closer to the original text than the other.The study is an intersection between Qurʾānic exegeses (tafsīr) and applied linguistics. The researcher consults different books on translation theories as well as of Qurʾānic exegeses (tafsīr) to facilitate the process of analyzing the near-synonyms in their Qurʾānic context. The researcher opts for eclecticism, instead of confining to a particular rigid model or approach, which is a combination of text-analysis translation-oriented approaches of De Beaugrande & Dressler(1981); Neubert & Shreve(1992); Halliday (1994) and Hatim & Mason (1990). In addition, the study draws upon the multiple and theoretical implications of Nida's dynamic equivalence, Beekman & Callow's (1974) historical and dynamic fidelity and Gutt's (1991) relevance theory and the emphasis on communication as mainly context-dependent. These models are closely related and reliable in the process of analyzing and evaluating the problems encountered in Arabic-English translation of the Qurʾānic near-synonyms. Furthermore, the researcher suggests an outline approach for the process of analyzing the Qurʾānic near-synonyms translations in a systemic and organized way thereby ensuring maximum and effective communication of the Qurʾānic message. The study concludes that the Qurʾān translator, compared to other literary genres, faces many difficulties in translating the Qurʾānic ST message. The selected translations of the Holy Qurʾān have failed to measure up to the depth of the Qurʾānic message, its originality and the connotative shades of meanings of the original expression. The study attributes these problems to contextual, socio-cultural, theological and historical factors which create differences that lead to gaps or absence of lexicalization in the TT. Furthermore, the reliance on dictionary meaning rather than the meaning of the lexical item in context, the negligence of context culture as well as the context of situation (the reason for the revelation of the verses) affect the “periodicity” of the text as indicated by Martin & Rose (2007, p.187), that is, the information flow of the whole text. Accordingly, this affects maintaining the standards of textuality and the fidelity which a religious text should meet. The complexity of the Qurʾān as genre is a great challenge to the translator at both the lexical and Qurʾān textual levels, which dilutes the authenticity of the holy text and misrepresents its true message. The conclusion of the study which contains recommendations based on experience may prove helpful to the future novice and professional translators to improve the quality of translation in general and religious translation in particular. The study is a contribution towards a greater understanding of the subtle differences between the near-synonymous pairs in their Qurʾānic context through Arabic-English translation. It is a novel addition to the world of religious translation, Qurʾān translation, ḥadīth and in English. It also contributes to some extent to modern exegeses of the Qurʾān. It is hoped that the work will encourage further studies in the field of translation to employ a context-based linguistic approach to translating different genres and sacred texts in particular, integrating insights from applicable translation and linguistic approaches.
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Papers by Belqes A Al-Sowaidi
Islamic institutions and its essential integration into the curriculum of
Islamic higher education. The study sheds light on the connections
between program content, teaching methodologies, and the cultivation of
graduateness in the context of Islamic education at the International Peace
College South Africa (IPSA), emphasizing the curriculum’s role in
enhancing values and ethics alongside employability preparedness. The
study investigates the BA program at IPSA over three years (2020-2023).
Employing the frameworks of Coetzee’s categorization of Graduate
Attributes, Biggs’ Constructive Alignment, and the Technological
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), the analysis explores attitudes
toward curriculum content, teaching, and learning through the lens of
graduateness development. Results from the questionnaire revealed a
statistically significant difference in the development of graduate
attributes at IPSA, influenced notably by thematic content (p = 0.0018). In
addition, there was a strong correlation between students’ and lecturers’
perceptions (r = 0.900, p < 0.0001), indicating effective alignment in the
understanding of educational goals.
translations of George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945), the first one by
Mohammed Hasan Alawi (2019) and the second one by Hiba Fathi (2020)
using House's (2015) Translation Quality Assessment model. A mixed
approach of qualitative and quantitative methods was employed. The
qualitative method involved conducting a comparative analysis between the
profiles of the source text and the two translations employing House's model
(2015) to identify mismatches at the register parameter. The quantitative
method was employed to quantify the overtly erroneous errors and
determine whether statistically significant differences exist in the mean
number of these errors between the two translations. The findings of the
study show numerous mismatches, particularly at the three dimensions of
register (field, tenor, and mode) which to some extent affected the ideational
and interpersonal components of the textual function in both translations.
The findings also indicate statistically significant differences between the
two translations in terms of the frequency of overtly erroneous errors. The
second translation exhibited a higher number of such errors compared to the
first translation, primarily resulting from the breach of the target language
system. The study concluded that the second translation was less adequate
compared to the first translation.
business translation at the undergraduate level at two Yemeni universities;
namely, Al-Saeed University and Taiz University. Two groups of students,
one control and the other experimental, were selected. Both groups took a
pre-test in business translation in which they were asked to translate several
texts from Arabic into English, and vice versa. After the pre-test, the two
groups completed a 3-month business translation course. Project-based
translation training was used with the experimental group. The control
group covered the content of the course in a traditional manner. Both
groups were asked to take a post-test in business translation after
completion of the course. The study concluded that the experimental group
that completed the project-based training showed more progress than the
control group. The difference between the mean of the two groups was
found to be significant, at p < 0.05. Members of the experimental group were
also interviewed about the project-based approach adopted in the
programme to gain insights into its pros and cons.
renditions of the above standards. In some contexts, the violation of a standard has led to the distortion of the Quranic message in the target language. The study has recommended that the translator of the Qur'an should supplement his translations with a lengthy list of explanations, footnotes, endnotes and glossaries based on authentic Quranic exegesis.