Visualization of Qur'anic Arabic Text for Non-Arabic Speakers
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INFORMATION VISUALIZATION WITH VOCABULARY TRACKING FOR WORD RECOGNITION IN QUR’ANIC VERSES RAJA JAMILAH BT RAJA YUSOF THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY FACULTY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA KUALA LUMPUR 2011 ORIGINAL LITERACY WORK DECLARATION Name of Candidate : RAJA JAMILAH BT RAJA YUSOF IC No : 740718-08-6442 Matric No : WHA040003 Name of Degree : Doctor of Philosophy Title of Dissertation : Information Visualization with Vocabulary Tracking for Word Recognition in Qur‘anic Verses Do solemnly and sincerely declare that: 1. I am the sole author/writer of this work; 2. This work is original; 3. Any use of any work in which copyright exists was done by way of fair dealing and for permitted purposes and any excerpt or extract from, or reference to or reproduction of any copyright work has been disclosed expressly and sufficiently and the title of the work and its authorship have been acknowledged in this work; 4. I do not have any actual knowledge nor do I ought reasonably to know that the making of this work constitutes an infringement of any copyright work; 5. I hereby assign all and every rights in the copyright to this work to the University of Malaya (UM), who henceforth shall be owner of the copyright in this work and that any reproduction or use in any form or by any means whatsoever in prohibited without the written consent of UM having been first had and obtained; 6. I am fully aware that is in the course of making this work I have infringed any copyright whether intentionally or otherwise, I may be subjected to legal action or any other action as may be determined by UM. Candidate‘s Signature : Date: Subscribed and solemnly declared before, Witness‘s Signature : Date: Name : Designation : ii ABSTRACT Muslims read or recite the Qur‘an which is a source of guidance in all aspects of life. However, their recitation is sometimes without comprehension especially to those who do not understand Arabic language. To help reduce this comprehension problem, visualization is proposed based on the theory that the learning process involves the perception and the processing stages. In particular, the visualization helps to support the perception stage and is used as a strategy to solve the word recognition with meaning retrieval problem. The occurrences of the Arabic words are visualized since the Qur’anic verses contain many repeated words. This is achieved through Parallel Coordinate and word segmentation visualization technique. The next stage is to process the information and this is supported through a vocabulary tracking system. The system is able to track a user‘s personal vocabulary with the presentation of the percentage and position in context of the Qur’an. In direct consequence the users know their ability of recognizing the Arabic words in relation to the whole Qur’an to achieve reading comprehension. The hypothesis is that visualization with vocabulary tracking mechanism supports Arabic word recognition in the Qur‘anic verses. The research methodology of this thesis starts with a preliminary study of identifying problems of Qur’an reciters and in solving the problem a study was carried out on how visual elements can help in reading comprehension. Then, an interface system called Parallel Coordinate of the Qur’an (PaCQ) was developed with appropriate functions and finally tested for its effectiveness. Particularly, PaCQ was tested for any improvement in the word recognition percentage scores and the time taken to complete word recognition exercise. An experimental study was set up starting with a pre-test of Arabic Word Recognition Test (AWRT) to all the targeted participants. Then stratified sampling was iii used to divide the participants into the control and the experimental group for the AWRT post-test. It was found that the AWRT score percentage rank for participants after using PaCQ interface was significantly higher compared to before using PaCQ. The average AWRT percentage scores of set 4, 5 and 6 (the post-test) for the PaCQ group, show significant difference in the rank score compared to the control group. The average rank time to complete the post-test for the PaCQ group is significantly faster compared to the control group. The average time to complete AWRT for age group >= 35 had been significantly improved in the experimental group compared to the control group. It can be concluded that visualization and vocabulary tracking mechanism through the PaCQ interface improve word recognition performance both in the score and the time taken to complete the test. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. He, who has given me the strength to continue doing this research. Alhamdullillah, All Praise to Allah that he has answered my prayers to actually submit this thesis with the hope to pass with excellence. It feels like it has been too long. I thank all people involved, from the three supervisors that had helped me with this research (Prof. Dr Roziati, Zulkifli and Sapiyan), my husband (Mohd Bahrulnizam), my mothers (Siti Halimah Saad, Eishah Awang and Siti Halimah Awang), my father (Musa Mohamed), my children (all seven of them: Salsabiela, Tasniem, Hamidun, Muhsinin, Muhammad, Hafidz, Roshada), my siblings, friends, other researchers and participants. All that had helped in this research. I pray that this research is beneficial to at least some people. I also hope that my late father (Raja Yusof) gets his share out of this research. Raja Jamilah Raja Yusof Part-time PhD student University of Malaya 2004 – 2011 v TABLE OF CONTENTS ORIGINAL LITERACY WORK DECLARATION ............................................................. ii ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................... v 1.0 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Motivation and background ..................................................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of problem .............................................................................................. 4 1.3 Main aim and objectives .......................................................................................... 5 1.4 Research Questions ................................................................................................. 6 1.5 Scope and constraints .............................................................................................. 6 1.6 Approaching the problem and hypothesis ............................................................... 7 1.7 Research methodology ............................................................................................ 9 1.8 Novelty and research investigation ....................................................................... 11 1.9 Thesis structure ...................................................................................................... 13 1.10 Terms and terminology in Qu‘ran, language and visualization fields .................. 14 2.0 READING THE QUR‘AN FOR COMPREHENSION ............................................ 16 2.1 Information processing in human brain for reading comprehension..................... 16 2.2 The reading processes ........................................................................................... 19 2.2.1 Word recognition processes in reading comprehension................................. 21 2.2.2 Reading comprehension problem and solution .............................................. 26 2.3 Qur‘anic lessons .................................................................................................... 30 2.4 The Qur‘an structure and terminologies ................................................................ 33 2.5 The Qur‘an and the Arabic language..................................................................... 35 2.5.1 Qur‘anic word structure ................................................................................. 35 2.6 The Malay language and the Qur‘an ..................................................................... 41 2.7 Related software .................................................................................................... 43 2.8 Summary ............................................................................................................... 46 3.0 INFORMATION VISUALIZATION FOR COMPREHENSION IN QUR‘ANIC VERSES ............................................................................................................................... 47 3.1 Word visualization ................................................................................................ 48 vi 3.2 Information visualization based on quantity and connectivity .............................. 50 3.2.1 Quantity aspects in visualization .................................................................... 51 3.2.2 Connectivity aspect of visualization .............................................................. 54 3.2.3 Using both quantity and connectivity aspect of visualization ........................ 56 3.3 Visualization for multidimensional variables in parallel and perpendicular plots 60 3.3.1 Fundamentals of perpendicular and parallel plots ......................................... 61 3.3.2 Perpendicular plots ........................................................................................