Abstract

Reading English texts efficiently compels Arab learners to eliminate the habits they have already established in reading Arabic texts . This is due to the fact that Arab learners of English cannot utilize the reading skills they have developed in their native language in reading English because English applies the Roman system of writing which differs Sharply from that of Arabic . This means that they need to be exposed to English more than Arabic . On the other hand excessive exposure to the foreign language may result in lowering the speed of reading the native language. So, this study is set to investigate this point . The hypothesis of this study assumes that university students of English would read in lower speed compared to their counterparts of Arabic when reading in Arabic because of the interference. The procedure of the study applied the device of the experimental and control group to study the differences among the subjects of the study. The results of the study have shown that the hypothesis is positive, which means that interference has taken place to the extent that reading speed has been lowered to show significant statistical differences at 0.05 in a one-tailed hypothesis. There are also differences according to sex and homogeneity .

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The article was added to IASJ on 2012-09-15

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