Perspectives of English-users and English-medium instructors in the Arabian Gulf: From Ivory Tower to Social Arena

Abstract

The labels of native and non-native speakers have been interrogated in the ivory towers of English Applied Linguistics for over twenty years (Kamhi-Stein, 2016; Saraceni, 2015). The debates have centered on the benefits afforded to students from language instructors who teach English from the vantage of either acquiring it a primary language as a child or as an additional language learned later in life (Medgyes, 1992). As Dearden (2014) points out, this kind of nomination of the cultural and linguistic identities of educators has generated heat but little light. Closer attention should be paid into the linguistic interactions among imported and locally-produced English-medium instructors and their students in and beyond the educational domain. There is growing consensus that decisions to enforce learning in English in higher education are made out of economic and citizenship considerations (Coleman, 2006) but extensive empirical research is needed to understand the impact that translanguaging among diverse language users, including mobile academics, has upon the quality of academic exchanges (Shohamy, 2012). Insights from research in multilingual communities show a need to engage with student perspectives to clarify prefered models of English (Tupas, 2012) and understand use of languages they know (Van der Walt, 2013) in higher education. There is currently great promise for ethnographic accounts of situated encounters between speakers of diverse languages (Blackledge & Creese, 2019; Creese, Blackledge, & Takhi, 2014), and this is particularly salient for the varied social arenas in the Arabian Gulf. The Arabian Gulf is a super-diverse region characterized by dynamic change. Undoubtedly, conceptions of English users and English-medium instructors in this region have shifted in status and focus. Long before the internationalization trend, English-using mobile academics have been a prominent feature of university and college campuses in the Arabian Gulf. This paper reviews the complex and diverse labels of English users in regional literature bases in respect to a recent phase of educational reforms in the United Arab Emirates shaped by a vision of bi-literacy in English and Arabic for young Emiratis. As part of a larger, exploratory study, this papers draws on qualitative data from four focus group discussions and ten ethnographic interviews with 16 Emiratis in an Abu Dhabi educational institution. It also relies on theoretical assumptions about socialization processes in the construction of knowledge premised on the use of a shared and common language. This paper sheds light on the ways that educated Emiratis describe English users in Abu Dhabi, and, in particular, the mobile academics encountered daily at an English-medium institution. In so doing, the study offers two main contributions to our understandings of interculturality and the ongoing debates about native and non-native speakers of English. The first refers to repositioning Emiratis as English- users and agents of linguistic change. On the cusp of a linguistic transformation, the participants self- identified as “bilingual” users of English and described roles they take as agents of linguistic change. The findings demonstrate a primacy for ad hoc labels for English users based on linguistic incompetence in Arabic. These findings serve to redirect prevailing discourses of linguistic imperialism where more English means less Islam (Karmani, 2005) to the issues generated by rich experiences in translanguaging practices in a superdiverse speech environment that features English, Arabic and other languages. The second contribution is a critical look at the adequacy of the prevailing labels for English speakers circulated in the ivory towers. The themes raised in this paper are intended to contribute to ongoing debates about the appropriate role of English and, hence, labels for language users in Abu Dhabi as a social space. The paper intends to stimulate discussion among interculturalists about the barriers and opportunities for intercultural communication on the peninsula.

Bibiliography

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Biography

Melanie van den Hoven has a PhD in Education from Durham University, England. She was a lecturer in the Language and Culture division at Emirates College for Advanced Education in the United Arab Emirates for a decade before assuming her current role leading a Cross Cultural Communication team in a multicultural energy company.