The phenomenon of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in contexts where English is not the official language is prevalent across the world (Doiz et al., 2011; Macaro, 2018). Many countries in this era of globalisation (and now increasingly internationalisation of (especially) higher education (which is often translated as the Englishisation of it)), aspire to develop their countries and citizens through supporting EMI at many, and ever more, at all stages of education. The Arab Gulf region is also not immune to the widespread implementation of EMI, however, for some educators and researchers (See Al-Issa & Dahan, 2011) the impact of the omnipresence of English has consequences for pupils' proficiency in Arabic as well as other paralinguistic aspects of their lives.
This sociolinguistic paper presents data from a project that set out to understand Gulf Arabs' perceptions of the current state of Arabic and its future in the shadow of the increasing importance of English as a global language (Crystal, 2012; Nunan, 2012). Data was collected through an online questionnaire (n=105) and followed up by interviews (n=13). The findings suggest that as many as 80% of the respondents feared for the future of the Arabic language believing that forthcoming generations will not be able to understand it, much less appreciate its complexities and beauty. Most participants (92%) blamed the language of instruction in educational institutions as the reason for their weak Arabic. The discourse in the interviews revealed ideological positions such as beliefs that the "deletion" of Arabic from the education domain created a "hierarchy" of languages and belief that Arabic was "backwards" and "useless". I question whether and how a plurilingual education system could support not only a more enriched experience of learning Arabic (and English), but also a different way of thinking about themselves and their language(s).
References
Al-Issa, A & Dahan, L. (2011) (eds.). Global English and Arabic: Issues of culture, language and identity. Oxford, UK: Peter Lang.
Crystal, D. (2012). English as a global language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Doiz, A; Lasagabaster, D &., Sierra, J.M. (2011). Internationalisation, multilingualism and English-medium instruction. World Englishes, 30 (3), pp.345-399.
Macaro, E. (2018). English medium instruction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Nunan, D. (2012). The impact of English as a global language on educational policies and practices in the Asia-Pacific region. TESOL Quarterly, 37 (4), pp.589-613.
