A Qualitative Investigation into the Impact of Diglossia on the Self-learning of an Arabic Spoken Dialect by Arabic as a Foreign Language Learners
الكلمات المفتاحية:
Arabic as a foreign language (AFL); Literary Arabic (LA); Dialect; Diglossia
الملخص
In a diglossic language such as Arabic, two distinct varieties are used for different purposes. Literary Arabic (LA), also referred to as Modern standard Arabic (MSA) or Fusha, is used primarily for reading, writing, and in formal and educational contexts across the Arab world. In addition to LA, there is a spoken dialect used for everyday communication, which varies from one Arabic country to another. Diglossia raises many challenges in the context of teaching Arabic as a foreign language. While some researchers and educators believe that spoken dialects should be taught in addition to LA, others still believe in the traditional LA-only approach, particularly in Arabic-speaking countries where learners are exposed to the dialect outside the classroom. The current study aims to explore the self-learning experience of the spoken dialect by Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) learners in an LA-only institute in Saudi Arabia. Particularly, the study investigates (a) the difficulties faced by the learners and the solutions adopted, (b) their ability to utilize the linguistic knowledge, and especially the morphological knowledge, they developed in LA to assist their acquisition of the spoken dialect, even if not instructed to do so, and (c) their attitudes towards teaching dialects in addition to LA in language institutes in Arabic-speaking countries. Our results reveal that AFL learners living in an Arabic-speaking country still struggle with the acquisition of everyday spoken dialect. In addition, they were unable to utilize the linguistic knowledge developed in LA to assist their acquisition of the dialect even when they were aware of how LA and the dialect could be linguistically related, especially at the morphological level. The results also show that AFL learners have different attitudes about the importance of teaching spoken dialects in language institutes. Participants’ opinions are shown to be dependent on several factors, including their motivation to learn the language, and the perceived difficulty of the task of acquiring LA and the dialect simultaneously. Future research recommendations and pedagogical implications are discussed accordingly.
المراجع
1. Abou-Ghazaleh, A., Khateb, A., & Nevat, M. (2018). Lexical competition between spoken and literary Arabic: A new look into the neural basis of diglossia using fMRI. Neuroscience, 393, 83–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2018.09.045
2. Abou-Ghazaleh, A., Khateb, A., & Nevat, M. (2020). Language control in diglossic and bilingual contexts: An event-related fMRI study using picture naming tasks. Brain Topography, 33(1), 60–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-019-00735-7
3. Agiùs, D. A. (1990). Diglossic tension: Teaching Arabic for communication. Folia Scholastica.
4. Al-Batal, M. (1992). Diglossia proficiency: The need for an alternative approach to teaching. The Arabic Language in America, 284-304.
5. Al-Batal, M. (1994). Issues in the teaching of the productive skills in Arabic. Odense Working Papers in Language and Communications, 49-78.
6. Al-Batal, M. (2018). Dialect integration in the Arabic foreign language curriculum. Vision, rationale and models. Al-Batal, 2018b, 3–22.
7. Al-Hamad, F. (1983). Problems in teaching Arabic to foreigners [Paper presentation]. The Proceedings of the Second Annual Linguistics Conference.
8. Allen, R. (1987). The Arabic guidelines: Where now. In C. W. Stansfield & C. Harmon (Eds.), ACTFL proficiency guidelines for the less commonly taught languages. Center for Applied Linguistics.
9. Al Masaeed, K. (2020). Translanguaging in L2 Arabic study abroad: Beyond monolingual practices in institutional talk. Modern Language Journal, 104(1), 250–266. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12623
10. Al Masaeed, K. (2022). Bidialectal practices and L2 Arabic pragmatic development in a short-term study abroad. Applied Linguistics, 43(1), 88–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amab013
11. Alosh, M. (1997). Learner, text, and context in foreign language acquisition: An Arabic perspective. Ohio State University National Foreign Language Resource Center.
12. Ayari, S. (1996). Diglossia and illiteracy in the Arab world. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 9(3), 243–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908319609525233
13. Bachman, L. F. (1990). Fundamental considerations in language testing. Oxford University Press.
14. Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (1996). Language testing in practice: Designing and developing useful language tests (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.
15. Belnap, R. K. (1987). Who’s taking Arabic and what on earth for? A survey of students in Arabic language programs. al-’Arabiyya, 29-42.
16. Berns, M. (1990). Contexts of competence: English language teaching in non-native contexts. Plenum. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9838-8
17. Boudelaa, S. (2014). Is the Arabic mental lexicon morpheme-based or stem-based? Implications for spoken and written word recognition. In Handbook of Arabic literacy (pp. 31–54). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8545-7_2
18. Boudelaa, S., & Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (2013). Morphological structure in the Arabic mental lexicon: Parallels between standard and dialectal Arabic. Language and Cognitive Processes, 28(10), 1453–1473. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.719629
19. Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (Vol. 4). Longman.
20. Brumfit, C. (1984). Communicative methodology in language teaching: The roles of fluency and accuracy (Vol. 129). Cambridge University Press.
21. Canale, M. (1983). From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy. Language & Communication, 1(1), 1–47.
22. Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1–47. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/1.1.1
23. Celce-Murcia, M. (1995). The elaboration of sociolinguistic competence: Implications for teacher education. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, 699-710.
24. Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112316009
25. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. MIT Press.
26. Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. New Jersey Mahwah.
27. Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics.
28. Ellis, R. (1982). Informal and formal approaches to communicative language teaching. ELT Journal, 36(2), 73–81. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/36.2.73
29. Ferguson, C. A. (1959). Diglossia. Word, 15(2), 325–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1959.11659702
30. Foote, R., Qasem, M., & Trentman, E. (2020). Morphological decomposition in L2 Arabic: A masked priming study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 49(2), 291–317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-020-09688-6
31. Freynik, S., Gor, K., & O’Rourke, P. (2017). L2 processing of Arabic derivational morphology. The Mental Lexicon, 12(1), 21–50. https://doi.org/10.1075/ml.12.1.02fre
32. Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. Arnold.
33. Hashem, R. (2022). Language Processing in Arabic Diglossia: Evidence for Memory-Based Automaticity. International Journal of Cognition and Behaviour, 5(1). 1-9. https://doi.org/10.23937/2690-3172/1710014
34. Heath, P. (1990). Proficiency in Arabic language learning: Some reflections on basic goals. al-’Arabiyya, 31-48.
35. Horwitz, E. K. (1990). Attending to the affective domain in the foreign language classroom: Shifting the instructional focus to the learner [Paper presentation]. Northeast Conference of Foreign Language Teachers.
36. Hymes, D. (1967). Models of the interaction of language and social setting. The Journal of Social Issues, 23(2), 8–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1967.tb00572.x
37. Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. Sociolinguistics, 269293, 269–293.
38. Ibrahim, R. (2006). Morpho-phonemic similarity within and between languages: A factor to be considered in processing Arabic and Hebrew. Reading and Writing, 19(6), 563–586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-006-9009-y
39. Ibrahim, R. (2009). The cognitive basis of diglossia in Arabic: Evidence from a repetition priming study within and between languages. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 2, 93. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S5138
40. Ibrahim, R., & Aharon-Peretz, J. (2005). Is literary Arabic a second language for native Arab speakers?: Evidence from semantic priming study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 34(1), 51–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-005-3631-8
41. Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization. Psychological Review, 95(4), 492–527. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.4.492
42. Maamouri, M. (1998). Language education and human development: Arabic diglossia and its impact on the quality of education in the Arab region.
43. MacIntyre, P. D. (1999). Language anxiety: A review of literature for language teachers. In D. J. Young (Ed.), Affect in foreign language and second language learning. McGraw Hill.
44. MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44(2), 283–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1994.tb01103.x
45. Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Sage (Atlanta, Ga.).
46. Myhill, J. (2014). The effect of diglossia on literacy in Arabic and other languages. In Handbook of Arabic literacy (pp. 197–223). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8545-7_9
47. Nahla, M. A. (2006). Teaching Arabic to nonnative speakers at Alexandria University. Handbook for Arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century (pp. 34-63).
48. Nassif, L., & Al Masaeed, K. (2020). Supporting the sociolinguistic repertoire of emergent diglossic speakers: Multidialectal practices of advanced L2 Arabic learners. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.
49. Nicola, M. (1990). Starting Arabic with dialect. Diglossia tension. Teaching Arabic for communication. Folia Scolastica.
50. Nunan, D. (1991). Communicative tasks and the language curriculum. TESOL Quarterly, 25(2), 279–295. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587464
51. Palmer, J. (2008). Arabic diglossia: Student perceptions of spoken Arabic after living in the Arabic-speaking world. Journal of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, 15, 81–95.
52. Piepho, H.-E. (1981). Establishing objectives in the teaching of English. The communicative teaching of English: Principles and an exercise typology (pp. 45-48).
53. Richards, J. C. (2005). Communicative language teaching today. SEAMEO Regional Language Centre Singapore.
54. Ringbom, H. (1980). On the distinction between second-language acquisition and foreign-language learning. AFinLAn vuosikirja, 37-44.
55. Ryding, K. C. (1995). Discourse competence in TAFL: Skill levels and choice of language variety in the Arabic classroom. The teaching of Arabic as a foreign language: Issues and directions (pp. 223-231).
56. Ryding, K. C. (2005). Arabic word structure: An overview. A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic, 44-56.
57. Ryding, K. C. (2006). Teaching Arabic in the United States. Handbook for Arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century (pp. 13-20).
58. Savignon, S. J. (1972). Communicative competence: An experiment in foreign-language teaching. Language and the teacher: A series in applied linguistics (Vol. 12).
59. Savignon, S. J. (1991). Communicative language teaching: State of the art. TESOL Quarterly, 25(2), 261–278. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587463
60. Savignon, S. J. (2007). Beyond communicative language teaching: What’s ahead? Journal of Pragmatics, 39(1), 207–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.09.004
61. Shiri, S. (2013). Learners’ attitudes toward regional dialects and destination preferences in study abroad. Foreign Language Annals, 46(4), 565–587. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12058
62. Soliman, R. K. A. M. (2014). Arabic cross-dialectal conversations with implications for the teaching of Arabic as a second language. University of Leeds.
63. Stevens, P. B. (2006). Is Spanish really so easy? Is Arabic really so hard?: Perceived difficulty in learning Arabic as a second language. Handbook for Arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century (pp. 35-63).
64. Trentman, E., & Shiri, S. (2020). The mutual intelligibility of Arabic dialects. Critical Multilingualism Studies, 8(1), 104–134.
65. Wahba, K. M. (2006). Arabic language use and the educated language user. Handbook for Arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century (pp. 139-155).
66. Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Teaching language as communication. Oxford University Press.
67. Younes, M. A. (1995). An integrated curriculum for elementary Arabic. The teaching of Arabic as a foreign language: Issues and directions (pp. 233-255).
2. Abou-Ghazaleh, A., Khateb, A., & Nevat, M. (2020). Language control in diglossic and bilingual contexts: An event-related fMRI study using picture naming tasks. Brain Topography, 33(1), 60–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-019-00735-7
3. Agiùs, D. A. (1990). Diglossic tension: Teaching Arabic for communication. Folia Scholastica.
4. Al-Batal, M. (1992). Diglossia proficiency: The need for an alternative approach to teaching. The Arabic Language in America, 284-304.
5. Al-Batal, M. (1994). Issues in the teaching of the productive skills in Arabic. Odense Working Papers in Language and Communications, 49-78.
6. Al-Batal, M. (2018). Dialect integration in the Arabic foreign language curriculum. Vision, rationale and models. Al-Batal, 2018b, 3–22.
7. Al-Hamad, F. (1983). Problems in teaching Arabic to foreigners [Paper presentation]. The Proceedings of the Second Annual Linguistics Conference.
8. Allen, R. (1987). The Arabic guidelines: Where now. In C. W. Stansfield & C. Harmon (Eds.), ACTFL proficiency guidelines for the less commonly taught languages. Center for Applied Linguistics.
9. Al Masaeed, K. (2020). Translanguaging in L2 Arabic study abroad: Beyond monolingual practices in institutional talk. Modern Language Journal, 104(1), 250–266. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12623
10. Al Masaeed, K. (2022). Bidialectal practices and L2 Arabic pragmatic development in a short-term study abroad. Applied Linguistics, 43(1), 88–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amab013
11. Alosh, M. (1997). Learner, text, and context in foreign language acquisition: An Arabic perspective. Ohio State University National Foreign Language Resource Center.
12. Ayari, S. (1996). Diglossia and illiteracy in the Arab world. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 9(3), 243–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908319609525233
13. Bachman, L. F. (1990). Fundamental considerations in language testing. Oxford University Press.
14. Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (1996). Language testing in practice: Designing and developing useful language tests (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.
15. Belnap, R. K. (1987). Who’s taking Arabic and what on earth for? A survey of students in Arabic language programs. al-’Arabiyya, 29-42.
16. Berns, M. (1990). Contexts of competence: English language teaching in non-native contexts. Plenum. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9838-8
17. Boudelaa, S. (2014). Is the Arabic mental lexicon morpheme-based or stem-based? Implications for spoken and written word recognition. In Handbook of Arabic literacy (pp. 31–54). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8545-7_2
18. Boudelaa, S., & Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (2013). Morphological structure in the Arabic mental lexicon: Parallels between standard and dialectal Arabic. Language and Cognitive Processes, 28(10), 1453–1473. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.719629
19. Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (Vol. 4). Longman.
20. Brumfit, C. (1984). Communicative methodology in language teaching: The roles of fluency and accuracy (Vol. 129). Cambridge University Press.
21. Canale, M. (1983). From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy. Language & Communication, 1(1), 1–47.
22. Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1–47. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/1.1.1
23. Celce-Murcia, M. (1995). The elaboration of sociolinguistic competence: Implications for teacher education. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, 699-710.
24. Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112316009
25. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. MIT Press.
26. Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. New Jersey Mahwah.
27. Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics.
28. Ellis, R. (1982). Informal and formal approaches to communicative language teaching. ELT Journal, 36(2), 73–81. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/36.2.73
29. Ferguson, C. A. (1959). Diglossia. Word, 15(2), 325–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1959.11659702
30. Foote, R., Qasem, M., & Trentman, E. (2020). Morphological decomposition in L2 Arabic: A masked priming study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 49(2), 291–317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-020-09688-6
31. Freynik, S., Gor, K., & O’Rourke, P. (2017). L2 processing of Arabic derivational morphology. The Mental Lexicon, 12(1), 21–50. https://doi.org/10.1075/ml.12.1.02fre
32. Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. Arnold.
33. Hashem, R. (2022). Language Processing in Arabic Diglossia: Evidence for Memory-Based Automaticity. International Journal of Cognition and Behaviour, 5(1). 1-9. https://doi.org/10.23937/2690-3172/1710014
34. Heath, P. (1990). Proficiency in Arabic language learning: Some reflections on basic goals. al-’Arabiyya, 31-48.
35. Horwitz, E. K. (1990). Attending to the affective domain in the foreign language classroom: Shifting the instructional focus to the learner [Paper presentation]. Northeast Conference of Foreign Language Teachers.
36. Hymes, D. (1967). Models of the interaction of language and social setting. The Journal of Social Issues, 23(2), 8–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1967.tb00572.x
37. Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. Sociolinguistics, 269293, 269–293.
38. Ibrahim, R. (2006). Morpho-phonemic similarity within and between languages: A factor to be considered in processing Arabic and Hebrew. Reading and Writing, 19(6), 563–586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-006-9009-y
39. Ibrahim, R. (2009). The cognitive basis of diglossia in Arabic: Evidence from a repetition priming study within and between languages. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 2, 93. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S5138
40. Ibrahim, R., & Aharon-Peretz, J. (2005). Is literary Arabic a second language for native Arab speakers?: Evidence from semantic priming study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 34(1), 51–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-005-3631-8
41. Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization. Psychological Review, 95(4), 492–527. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.4.492
42. Maamouri, M. (1998). Language education and human development: Arabic diglossia and its impact on the quality of education in the Arab region.
43. MacIntyre, P. D. (1999). Language anxiety: A review of literature for language teachers. In D. J. Young (Ed.), Affect in foreign language and second language learning. McGraw Hill.
44. MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44(2), 283–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1994.tb01103.x
45. Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Sage (Atlanta, Ga.).
46. Myhill, J. (2014). The effect of diglossia on literacy in Arabic and other languages. In Handbook of Arabic literacy (pp. 197–223). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8545-7_9
47. Nahla, M. A. (2006). Teaching Arabic to nonnative speakers at Alexandria University. Handbook for Arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century (pp. 34-63).
48. Nassif, L., & Al Masaeed, K. (2020). Supporting the sociolinguistic repertoire of emergent diglossic speakers: Multidialectal practices of advanced L2 Arabic learners. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.
49. Nicola, M. (1990). Starting Arabic with dialect. Diglossia tension. Teaching Arabic for communication. Folia Scolastica.
50. Nunan, D. (1991). Communicative tasks and the language curriculum. TESOL Quarterly, 25(2), 279–295. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587464
51. Palmer, J. (2008). Arabic diglossia: Student perceptions of spoken Arabic after living in the Arabic-speaking world. Journal of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, 15, 81–95.
52. Piepho, H.-E. (1981). Establishing objectives in the teaching of English. The communicative teaching of English: Principles and an exercise typology (pp. 45-48).
53. Richards, J. C. (2005). Communicative language teaching today. SEAMEO Regional Language Centre Singapore.
54. Ringbom, H. (1980). On the distinction between second-language acquisition and foreign-language learning. AFinLAn vuosikirja, 37-44.
55. Ryding, K. C. (1995). Discourse competence in TAFL: Skill levels and choice of language variety in the Arabic classroom. The teaching of Arabic as a foreign language: Issues and directions (pp. 223-231).
56. Ryding, K. C. (2005). Arabic word structure: An overview. A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic, 44-56.
57. Ryding, K. C. (2006). Teaching Arabic in the United States. Handbook for Arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century (pp. 13-20).
58. Savignon, S. J. (1972). Communicative competence: An experiment in foreign-language teaching. Language and the teacher: A series in applied linguistics (Vol. 12).
59. Savignon, S. J. (1991). Communicative language teaching: State of the art. TESOL Quarterly, 25(2), 261–278. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587463
60. Savignon, S. J. (2007). Beyond communicative language teaching: What’s ahead? Journal of Pragmatics, 39(1), 207–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.09.004
61. Shiri, S. (2013). Learners’ attitudes toward regional dialects and destination preferences in study abroad. Foreign Language Annals, 46(4), 565–587. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12058
62. Soliman, R. K. A. M. (2014). Arabic cross-dialectal conversations with implications for the teaching of Arabic as a second language. University of Leeds.
63. Stevens, P. B. (2006). Is Spanish really so easy? Is Arabic really so hard?: Perceived difficulty in learning Arabic as a second language. Handbook for Arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century (pp. 35-63).
64. Trentman, E., & Shiri, S. (2020). The mutual intelligibility of Arabic dialects. Critical Multilingualism Studies, 8(1), 104–134.
65. Wahba, K. M. (2006). Arabic language use and the educated language user. Handbook for Arabic language teaching professionals in the 21st century (pp. 139-155).
66. Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Teaching language as communication. Oxford University Press.
67. Younes, M. A. (1995). An integrated curriculum for elementary Arabic. The teaching of Arabic as a foreign language: Issues and directions (pp. 233-255).
منشور
2022-06-30
كيفية الاقتباس
Rabab Hashem. (2022). A Qualitative Investigation into the Impact of Diglossia on the Self-learning of an Arabic Spoken Dialect by Arabic as a Foreign Language Learners. Journal of Arts, Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, (80), 112-126. https://doi.org/10.33193/JALHSS.80.2022.685
إصدار
القسم
المقالات
