Dr. Brian Bielenberg

1
English Teachers Promoting Arabic? You
Bet!Social and Pedagogical Benefits

• Dr. Brian Bielenberg
• European University Cyprus
• b.bielenberg_at_euc.ac.cy

2
Outline of Talk

• Why English medium higher education?
• Methods Getting the students perspective
• Findings Benefits and concerns
• Can languages be lost?
• Solutions The role of English Teachers

3
English in European Education
4
Purposes of English Medium around the World
(www.eurydice.org)

• Socio-economic aims
• Language-related aims
• Educational aims (learning ability)
• Socio-cultural aims

5
Why English Medium Higher Ed?

• Proficient ability in English will ensure that
  our students have access to rich opportunities in
  employment, in education, and in expanding
  relationships.
• (Shk. Nahayan al Mubarak, TESOL 2006)

6
The context

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Methods

• Group interviews with students (n 104)
• Transcribed, common themes identified
• Ethnography (schools, malls, souks, etc.)
• 2 different, yet similar speech communities
• UAE
• Cyprus

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The UAE

• Language of School Modern Standard Arabic
  Language of home - Khaleeji
• 48 Universities
• Proliferation of private English institutes
• New admissions policy effective Sep 2006
• 70 on GSC exam
• 150 on CEPA English

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Cyprus

• School Language Modern Standard Greek Language
  of Home - Kypriaka
• 4 Universities
• 1 Greek Medium, 3 English Medium
• Proliferation of private English institutes
• At present, no English entry requirements

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Perceived Benefits of English Medium Higher
Education (Cyprus and UAE)

• Increased employment opportunities
• Communicate with others
• Motivating, help students to focus
• Improves English proficiency
• English is the language of the globe. It will
  help me know how to communicate with people and
  get a good job. Salwa, 3rd year student at
  UAEU

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The Other Side Concerns

• Difficult for students to participate fully in
  their education
• During the first year of my studies I was not
  fully able to express myself in English. Most of
  the time when I had to answer a question in a
  discussion, my answer included one or two words
  only. Eleftheria
• A lot of times students feel frustrated and
  terrified.
• Elida

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The Other Side Participation

• I remember when I first came to this university
  and I had to speak English and only English in
  the classroom, I would not participate like I do
  now, one year after, because I would feel
  uncomfortable to use the English language. I
  knew that I would not be able to fully express
  myself in that language so I would rather not
  participate. Myriam, 2nd year UAEU student

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The Other Side Concerns

• Limited educational opportunities
• If someone doesnt know how to speak English,
  its very difficult for him or her to study.
  Dora, 3rd year student
• Doesnt prepare students for L1 work environment

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The Other Side Concerns

• L1 (Arabic/Greek) Attrition
• Its like it is not our university anymore. We
  will soon know English better than our own
  language. Mouza, 2nd year student
• I speak Kypriaka and English fluently, but
  since I have been at university I prefer to speak
  English. I feel more comfortable in it.
• Froso, 3rd year

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The Other Side Attrition

• Many of my school friends were foreigners so I
  had no need really to speak the native language
  of the country that I live in. I do regret not
  having learnt Greek properly because I find it
  hard to express myself to people who speak the
  language fluently and I tend to feel a little
  stupid when talking to someone who speaks a high
  level of Greek. Chrissie

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Why do languages fade?

• Growth of English as global lingua franca
• Changing demographics (Krauss, 1992)
• Economic changes
• Onerousness of Multilingualism (Dorian, 1998)
• Loss of domains (Fishman, 1991)
• Cultural assimilation (Western consumer culture)
  (Grenoble and Whaley, 1998)
• Languages become moribund

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Steps to Assimilation(Crystal, 2000 Grenoble
and Whaley, 1998)

• Immense pressure (top-down) to speak a dominant
  (dominating) language
• Emerging bilingualism
• Younger generation more proficient, more
  comfortable in new language
• L1 less valuable to be effective in the world
• L1 less relevant to needs

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Impact elsewhere in the world

• Europe
• Malta and Luxembourg Strong bi/trilingualism
• Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Lithuania, Belgium
  (Flemish community) Fears for national language
• Nigeria Yaruba, with 20 million speakers, has
  been called deprived because of the way it has
  come to be dominated by English in higher
  education (Brenzninger, 1998).
• India (L1 not as important as L2, visibility,
  choice) (Kazmi, 1997 Ladefoged Dorian,
  Language, 1993)
• American Indians loss of language, loss of
  culture

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In the UAE?

• I cant read Arabic numbers. Emirati female,
  year 12 student
• Placement into Arabic for non-Speakers, Emirati
  students entering UGRU
• Ill change my daughters religion. Emirati
  father when told his daughter must do Arabic
• Our children are fluent in English, but cant
  read Arabic. Emirati parent to literacy presenter

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In Cyprus

• I have noticed that my Greek vocabulary is
  becoming less and less rich because for the last
  two years I didnt open none of my Greek books.
  Alexandra, 2nd year student
• People send their children at an early age to
  private English schools in order to know English
  as if it was their first language. Chrissie, 4th
  year student

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Why we should care?

• View own language and culture as inferior
• Increase in societal problems
• Reduced intergenerational transmission of
  language and traditions
• Diversity of languages is as important as
  biodiversity
• Mainstreams can dilute

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What can parents do?

• Continually stress the value of Arabic
• Make time to be with your children, speaking
  Arabic
• Stay in Arabic even if children prefer English
• Keep Arabic the language of the home and social
  gatherings
• Work with schools to promote bilingual programs

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What can English teachers do?

• Promote additive bilingualism
• Be aware of student identity issues
• Support colleagues teaching in English
• Focus on English language instruction as more
  than what happens in the classroom
• Be a school wide/university wide/community wide
  advocate for bilingual initiatives
• Make space for L1 use in your classroom

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L1 in the English Classroom

• Priming in the L1 (de Majia1988)
• During Cooperative Group discussions (Thinking
  Skills work length of utterance)
• L1 for warm-up brainstorming (Weschler 1997)
• occasional use of the L1 gives them the
  opportunity to show that they are intelligent,
  sophisticated people (Atkinson 1993)

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Octavio Paz

• What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of
  differences, their attractions and repulsions.
  Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By
  suppressing differences and peculiarities, by
  eliminating different civilizations and cultures,
  progress weakens life and favors death. Every
  view of the world that becomes extinct, every
  culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility
  of life.