PhD Degree Awarded to Mr. Ali Ahmed Ja‘lal in English Language (Applied Linguistics)

Mr. Ali Ahmed Hezam Ja‘lal was awarded a PhD degree in English Language (Applied Linguistics) for his dissertation titled: A Corpus-Based Study of the English Synonymous Verbs Denoting Change in Light of the Corpus of the Contemporary American English (COCA), which was submitted to the Department of English, Faculty of Languages – Sana’a University. The dissertation defense was held on Wednesday, February 11, 2026.

The PhD Viva-Voce Committee, which was formed based on a resolution issued by the Graduate Studies and Scientific Research Council, consisted of the following:

# Committee Members Designation Position
1 Prof. Abdulsalam Mohammed Ghaleb Al-Ghurafi ‎ ‎ Internal Examiner Chair
2 Assoc. Prof. Yahya Mohammed Ali Al-Marani Main Supervisor Member
3 Assoc. Prof. Yaser Mohammed Abdulrahman Al-Sharafi ‎ External Examiner Member

The dissertation aimed to:
 Identify similarities and differences among the English synonymous verbs denoting change: change, alter, adapt, adjust, and modify, through analysis based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).
The study yielded several key findings summarized as follows:
 Noticeable similarities and variations were found among the verbs in terms of overall ‎frequency.‎
 Differences existed in distribution across text types, nominal and adverbial ‎collocations, semantic and grammatical patterns.‎
 Absolute synonymy does not exist in English; therefore, words with similar ‎meanings should be classified as near-synonyms rather than exact equivalents.‎
In light of these findings, the researcher recommended the following:‎
 Highlighting the importance of corpus linguistics in enhancing English language ‎teaching and learning, and improving linguistic competence for learners of English ‎as a foreign language (EFL).‎
 Integrating corpus tools such as COCA into classroom instruction.‎
 Incorporating corpus-based activities into language curricula and teacher training ‎programs.‎
 Expanding future research by comparing British and American varieties of English ‎using additional linguistic corpora.‎

The dissertation defense was attended by a number of academics, researchers, and specialists, students, colleagues, and the researcher’s family.