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Recent studies on language acquisition and motivation have targeted Japanese language learners in a formal educational context, with less attention paid to learners who study Japanese informally. The current study aims to investigate the impact of Japanese animations in the context of informal third language acquisition. It targets the native speakers of Arabic who are interested in learning Japanese as a third language (L3), and investigates the motivations of Arab teenagers and young adults to learn Japanese. Further, the paper also focuses on examining aspects of Japanese language proficiency among teenagers and young adults, including vocabulary enhancement and grammar competence. The methodology used in the current study is twofold: an online survey questionnaire adopted from Armour and Iida (2016), followed by an engaging experiment in which participants were divided into two groups (reality anime group vs. action anime group) in order to examine the effectiveness of anime selection in boosting proficiency level. The findings of the online survey indicate that Arabic native speakers are highly motivated to learn Japanese, while the experiment results confirm that the type of anime and consistency of exposure do support the acquisition process. Further, the study concluded that consumption of anime series contributes to the learning process and facilitates learners' proficiency in general and vocabulary learning in particular. However, it remains unknown whether or not Arabic native speakers' motivations lead to their enrollment into formal Japanese foreign language education. Avenues for future research and implications are also presented toward the end of the paper.

Background: One of the most important issues in public policy and welfare state is health care. Poor management leads to the waste of resources, including money, human resources, facilities, and equipment. Aims: This paper seeks to answer the question of which eastern Mediterranean countries are more effective in allocating their health resources, and does Iran, in relation to those countries, have an effective health system. Methods: This study examined technical efficiency among eastern Mediterranean countries in 2018. Data were extracted from Global Health Observatory data World Health Organization. We applied input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models to estimate efficiency scores. Inputs are Physicians density per 10,000 populations, Total hospital beds per 10,000 populations, Current expenditure on health, % of gross domestic product and outputs are infant survival rate and Life expectancy. Results: The most efficient health systems in the eastern Mediterranean were Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. The inefficient countries are Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Palestine and Saudi Arabia. Conclusions: Among the efficient countries, one category of high-entry countries such as Bahrain and Qatar with high input especially in health expenditure had higher output. The second group of countries with lower inputs such as Iran and Morocco has been able to produce similar output with other countries. Also, inefficiency in countries such as Saudi Arabia can be attributed to this with higher input such as health expenditure has lower output such life expectancy and infant survival rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomena of disabilities in the Arab world can be viewed from various perspectives, considering historical times, epistemological programmes and theoretical models. This article is a theoretical review and comparative data analysis of the problems regarding the evolution of attitudes and current concept of disability and theoretical assumptions of caring for disabled people in the Arab world. Content of the theoretical part of the paper includes reasons for caring for disabled Arabs, including: analysis of human orientation aspects, social orientation, equality of opportunity and principles of democracy orientation and human development orientation. In the second part of the article the authors discuss empirical comparative data related to disability in the Arab world as: various causes of congenital or acquired disabilities, including culturally bounded causes of disabilities in Arab world, related to marriages in close families and marriages of underage girls. The paper illustrates key aspects of conceptualization of disabilities in the Arab countries and gives comparative analysis of the latest data on the situation of children with disabilities in education sectors and adults in the labor market. This part of comparative analysis broadly refers to the primary data from the Arab countries published as research report in 2018 by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. The report is entitled "Disability in the Arab Region".

The phenomena of disabilities in the Arab world can be viewed from various perspectives, considering historical times, epistemological programmes and theoretical models. This article is a theoretical review and comparative data analysis of the problems regarding the evolution of attitudes and current concept of disability and theoretical assumptions of caring for disabled people in the Arab world. Content of the theoretical part of the paper includes reasons for caring for disabled Arabs, including: analysis of human orientation aspects, social orientation, equality of opportunity and principles of democracy orientation and human development orientation. In the second part of the article the authors discuss empirical comparative data related to disability in the Arab world as: various causes of congenital or acquired disabilities, including culturally bounded causes of disabilities in Arab world, related to marriages in close families and marriages of underage girls. The paper illustrates key aspects of conceptualization of disabilities in the Arab countries and gives comparative analysis of the latest data on the situation of children with disabilities in education sectors and adults in the labor market. This part of comparative analysis broadly refers to the primary data from the Arab countries published as research report in 2018 by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. The report is entitled "Disability in the Arab Region".

This paper rests on a survey among students of Arab Open University (AOU) that covered 6,369 students from all branches (in eight countries) and across all four colleges. It endeavours to raise a case for introducing entrepreneurship education in AOU. The Survey results show a surprisingly high level of entrepreneurial intention among the students, and the overwhelming majority of them are demanding introduction of entrepreneurship education. The Paper uses results of the Survey to present how the students of AOU desire their entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship training programmes to be organised, and to identify the target groups of each of the two programmes. Based on these results and on selected literature review of the concepts of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship training, an outline of entrepreneurship curricula and of teaching and training methods are suggested. Both curricula and methods advanced could be of relevance beyond the specific case of AOU.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of human resource development (HRD) education in Middle Eastern countries. In particular, the authors discuss the current state of HRD education, country readiness and challenges that hinder HRD progress in Middle Eastern countries. They argue that HRD programs need to prepare young employees for leadership roles through adapting constructivist pedagogy, including problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity. Design/methodology/approach: The design of this paper followed a qualitative approach. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with five HRD experts in Middle Eastern countries and conducted integrative literature review and secondary data analysis. Findings: Data analysis provided an overview of HRD education, looked at options individuals interested in HRD education might have, provided views on constructivism vs instructivism as education pedagogies and discussed cultural factors that impede critical reflection in the workplace. Research limitations/implications: To understand how to introduce constructivist elements to instructivist learning cultures, and to sustain it, HRD scholars in the Middle Eastern countries need to diminish the misalignment between instructional philosophies of trainers, trainees and national or institutional systems. Practical implications: Understanding how policy, resources, infrastructure and culture influence learning expectations is vital to introducing innovative training activities or scaling them up to other workshops and systems. Originality/value: This research sheds light on HRD education in the Middle Eastern countries; provides an overview of employment challenges and opportunities to improve workplace learning; and provides scholars, practitioners and other stakeholders interested in HRD with suggestions to develop successful workforce education.

Kuwait has a cosmopolitan population of 1.7 million, mostly Arabs. This population is a mosaic of large and small minorities representing most Arab communities. In general, Kuwait's population is characterized by a rapid rate of growth, large family size, high rates of consanguineous marriages within the Arab communities with low frequency of intermarriage between them, and the presence of genetic isolates and semi-isolates in some extended families and Bedouin tribes. Genetic services have been available in Kuwait for over a decade. During this time it has become clear that Arabs have a high frequency of genetic disorders, and in particular autosomal recessive traits. Their pattern is unique and some disorders are relatively common. Examples are Bardet-Biedl and Meckel syndromes, phenylketonuria, and familial Mediterranean fever. A relatively large number of new syndromes and variants have been delineated in Kuwait's population, many being the result of homozygosity for autosomal recessive genes that occurred because of inbreeding. Some of these syndromes have subsequently been found in other parts of the world, negating the concept of the private syndrome. This paper provides an overview of autosomal recessive disorders among the Arabs in Kuwait from a personal perspective and published studies, and highlights the need for genetic services in Arab countries with the goal of prevention and treatment of genetic disorders.