The fall and rise of the Arabic language: A discursive analysis of the impact of Arabic language initiatives of the United Arab Emirates

: A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Education

Abstract

Over the past decade the government of the United Arab Emirates has led several initiatives to revive and strengthen the Arabic language at the educational, cultural, and regulatory levels. These initiatives were influenced by popular narratives about the challenges to Arabic learners in the usage of their mother-tongue, the diluted presence of the Arabic language in public space, and the relative lack of macro-level language policies in the UAE and the Gulf region more broadly. The government initiatives have sought to bring about a revival of Arabic language discourse in the public, educational and policy spheres.

Using a post-structuralist approach to the analysis of policy discourse, this study investigated the perceptions and problematizations of the recent Arabic language initiatives (ALI) of the UAE with a view to identifying the implications for the curriculum and pedagogy of the Arabic language.

Data were gathered by means of 29 semi-structured interviews, following the ‘What’s the problem represented to be’ framework (WPR) proposed by Bacchi and Goodwin (2016b). A discourse-historical analysis (DHA) approach was then used in order to interrogate the underpinning concepts of the Arabic language policy which impact on teaching and learning.

The findings suggest that the Arabic Language Initiatives of the UAE are political drivers that contributed to raising the profile of the Arabic language, yet they were not perceived to have filtered through the system sufficiently to affect learners’ pedagogical experiences in the language. The data reflects a perceived policy practice gap reflected in the absence of an Arabic language education policy and an ambiguous regulatory landscape. The implications of this research bring to the fore new pathways for the development of Arabic language policy, pedagogical practices and curriculum planning in the UAE. In addition, the study suggests implications for the agenda of Arabic teacher preparation and the Arabic language content in public and virtual space.

Date of Award	24 Jun 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Janina Iwaniec (Supervisor) & Trevor Grimshaw (Supervisor)