In 1987 (1407 h), I received my first degree from the Faculty of Arts in Arabic language at King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. During my undergraduate course, I studied several linguistics modules and some languages (Hebrew, Persian, Turkish), which grew up my interest in theoretical linguistics as well as in language teaching/learning (applied linguistics). At the time I was doing my BA, I used to work under “Saudi Shares Registration Company” as a secretary.

That interest in linguistics propelled me in 1987 to enrol in the Arabic Language Institute (ALI) at KSU, where I enrolled in a one-year Applied Linguistic Course and obtained, in 1988, a Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching Arabic to Non-Native Speakers.  During this period I was solely concentrated on my studies and my GPA was 5/5. Then I took place as language instructor in the Department of Language and Culture in ALI at KSU, where I taught both non-Arabic speakers and introductory grammar courses to Arab undergraduate students.

While I was teaching in the Department of Language and Culture, I embarked in 1992  on an MA degree in the Department of Curricula and Teaching Methods. In 1995, I received my MA degree from the Graduate School of Education at KSU, with a GPA of 4.86 out of 5. Then I became a lecturer at the Department of Teacher Education that prepares language instructors to teach Arabic to non-native speakers.

In 1997, I enrolled in several general and academic intensive English language courses in England to prepare myself to study for a PhD degree in linguistics in an English university. In late 1998 I started studying some courses of  Master qualifications and doing PhD research in the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex under the supervision of  Mr Phil J Scholfield. At Essex, I had greater chance to explore the latest theories in applied linguistics and obtained my PhD degree in that field. My thesis was about Test-taking strategies and construct validity of EFL multiple-choice vocabulary tests, and here is an abstract of it. 

Throughout the above missions, I carried out several papers in a number of applied and theoretical linguistic domains. Abstracts of some of them can be found here and you may email me if a full account is required. My general academic interest is applied linguistics and I have a particular interest in language testing and.

In 2004, I returned to my mother university KSU and became an assistant professor in the Department of  Teacher Education at the Arabic Language Institute. This department offers a one-year postgraduate course that qualifies graduate candidates to be competent teachers of Arabic as a second/foreign language. My areas of lecturing there is on 'language testing' and 'research methods'.