Towards a Review of Who Is the Arabic Heritage Learner

By Soubeika Bahri (University of Colorado)

The present paper is set to revisit notions of the heritage language concerning the field of teaching standard Arabic in the United States. Students’ experiences in learning standard Arabic as a “Heritage Languages” when it is neither the mother tongue spoken at home nor in the communities call for a better review of the diglossic nature of Arabic and highlights two features that have become challenging to the teaching of the language as a heritage language: (a) linguistic distance between the so-called Arabic spoken dialects and Standard Arabic and (b) attitudes shift favoring dialects over Standard Arabic. Based on 76 interviews of students of Arabic with parents from various Arabic dialect backgrounds the paper presents three different categories of learners of Arabic all grouped under the term “heritage learners” despite their distinct linguistic backgrounds: learners who don’t speak Arabic at home though descent of Arab parents; learners who speak a variety of Arabic but believe standard Arabic is the mother tongue of their parents and learners who think they are a heritage to both Standard Arabic and the variety they speak with their parents at home. Based on these findings rethinking the pedagogical approach to teaching Arabic as a heritage language becomes necessary to better meet the learners’ goals and speak to their concerns. The study finishes by suggesting an approach to Arabic spoken varieties as separate languages particularly with the development of some of them into languages of literacy and with the ongoing efforts to standardize them.

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Published: Thursday, April 22, 2021