Dawood A. Mahdi, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics and Translation at King Khalid University. He has been teaching in higher education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for more than 25 years in Yemen, India, and Saudi Arabia. His research area is oral communication apprehension, communication competence and confidence. Among his other interests are communication skills, second language acquisition and translation studies. He is a member of many international organizations like IATEFL, UK, WATA, ATIDA, ATI, etc.