Is English really enough? researching foreign language planning and policy in Saudi Arabia.
Author(s):
Maram Almansour (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2013
Network:
21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Format:
Paper

Session Information

ERG SES D 05, Education and Languages

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-09
13:30-15:00
Room:
A-105
Chair:
Dennis Beach

Contribution

this study aims to explore foreign language planning and policy in Saudi public schools. In order to preserve the country’s native language, the ministry of education (in Saudi Arabia) limited the number of foreign languages taught in public schools to one, namely English. Due to its international/global status, English was thought to be the most important and useful language, and therefore no need to learn more (in other words, English was thought to be enough).

One aim of this study is to examine how Saudi students reacted to the limitation of foreign languages taught in public schools. Realising the political, economic, and social transformation in Saudi Arabia, as well as the  advantages of multilingualism, some Saudi students looked elsewhere to learn foreign languages of their choice. To most students, there is a clear division between languages that they have to learn (at school) and languages that they wantto learn (outside the school).

This paper draws upon data from my PhD research project, which explores foreign language planning and policy in Saudi Arabia and discusses how Saudi students use and remix resources to learn several foreign languages.

Method

This is an inductive, exploratory and qualitative research project, aiming to explore foreign language planning and policy as decision-making processes in Saudi schools. Therefore, a research model was designed based on the strategy of Charmaz’s (2006) grounded theory. In this study, grounded theory is appropriate as little is known about the area of the research, and a constructed theory of foreign language planning and policy is a desired outcome (Birks and Mills, 2011). The data will be collected by means of qualitative questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with students in different school levels and their language teachers.

Expected Outcomes

there were two sets of data. the first was from parents, teachers and policy makers which represent the top-down views regarding foreign language planning and policy in Saudi Arabia. the second was from students in different school levels which represent the bottom-up views regarding the phenomena. the top-down views expressed some concerns regarding introducing more foreign languages to schools for different reasons (e.g. fear of affect on Arabic). however, students dislike the current language policy, and use their time outside the school to learn foreign languages of their choice.

References

Birks, M. & Mills, J. 2011. Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide, Sage Publications Ltd. Charmaz, K. 2006. Constructing grounded theory, London ; Thousand Oaks, Calif., Sage Publications. Cooper, R. L. 1989. Language planning and social change, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Ferguson, G. 2006. Language planning and education, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. Fishman, J. A. 1974. Advances in language planning. Edited by Joshua A. Fishman, The Hague, Paris: Mouton. Fishman, J. A. 2002. " Holy languages" in the context of societal bilingualism. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE, 87, 15-24. Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. 1968. The Discovery of grounded theory. Strategies for qualitative research, pp. x. 271. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London; printed in U.S.A. Haarmann, H. 1990. Language planning in the light of a general theory of language: A methodological framework. International Journal of the Sociology of language, 86, 103-126. Kaplan, R. B. & Baldauf, R. B. 1997. Language planning : from practice to theory, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters Ltd. Liddicoat, A. J. & Baldauf, R. B. 2008. Language planning in local contexts: Agents, contexts and interactions. Language planning and policy: Language planning in local contexts, 3ñ17.

Author Information

Maram Almansour (presenting / submitting)
University of Sheffield
school of Education
Sheffield

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