Over the past two decades, the Arabian oil-rich Gulf countries have faced enormous social, political, economic, cultural, religious, ideological and epistemological upheaval. Through detailed, critical comparative investigation, Neoliberalism and English Language Education Policies in the Arabian Gulf examines the impact of such disruption on education policies in a political and economic union, consisting of six countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Using data collected from a wide range of sources, this thought-provoking book documents the inner workings of neoliberalism across a strategic geographical area of the Islamic world. The book teases apart the complex issues surrounding the ways in which access to English has been envisioned, contested, and protected from being challenged among different players within and between the Gulf countries. Osman Z. Barnawi explores the intensifying ideological debates between Islamic culture and Western neoliberal values, and questions whether Islamic values and traditions have been successfully harmonised with neoliberal capitalist development strategies for nation building in the Arabian Gulf region. Neoliberalism and English Language Education Policies in the Arabian Gulf will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduates working in the fields of language education and, more specifically, TESOL, applied linguistics, education policy, and teacher education.

This edited volume contributes a novel understanding of the past, present and future of higher education across the six countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Against the backdrop of intense political, ideological and epistemological disruptions across the Arabian Gulf Region over the last two decades, this volume adopts critical comparative perspectives in order to chart the history, present-day and future realities of higher education in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. By focusing on dynamics relating to neoliberalism, and using the notions of ‘tensionality’ and ‘locality’ to situate topics such as curricula, policies, practices, the volume engages with current discourses, controversies and themes such as the internationalization and marketization of higher education in these countries. In doing so, the book offers a theoretical framework to enable greater understanding of the contemporary functioning of higher education in the Arabian Gulf Region. This text will benefit scholars, academics and students in the fields of higher education and international and comparative education more broadly. Those involved with educational policy and politics, and Middle Eastern studies in general, will also benefit from this volume.

This book investigates different ways in which neoliberal language and teaching policies have influenced the English language in global south countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Through the three main sub themes covered by the book, namely Neoliberalism and English Language Teaching Policies, Neoliberalism Ideology as in English Language Teaching Materials, and Experiences of Neoliberal Subjects, it investigates various aspects and means through which neoliberalism is realized in a variety of contexts. Through the first subtheme the volume covers the English language education policies of Chile, Bangladesh, India, and Morocco. The second sub theme concerns how different neoliberal values such as consumerism, entrepreneurship, and individualism are localized and constructed in the locally developed English language materials of Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The third sub theme includes studies on the impact of neoliberalization of English in relation to Colombian, Brazilian, and Pakistani stakeholders. This book is a valuable resource for academics, postgraduate students, researchers, policy makers, educators, and practitioners who are interested in neoliberalism in English language.

Combining empirical and theoretical approaches from a range of disciplines, Linguistic Identities in the Arab Gulf States examines current issues surrounding language and identity in the Arab Gulf states. Organized in four parts, the book addresses the overarching theme of ‘waves of change’ in relation to language and power, linguistic identities in the media, identities in transition, and language in education. The authors of each chapter are renowned experts in their field and contribute to furthering our understanding of the dynamic, changeable, and socially constructed nature of identities and how identities are often intricately woven into and impacted by local and global developments. Although the book geographically covers Gulf region contexts, many of the concepts and dilemmas discussed are relevant to other highly diverse nations globally. For example, debates surrounding tolerance, diversity, neoliberal ideologies in English-medium instruction (EMI), media representation of language varieties, and sociolinguistic inequalities during coronavirus communication are pertinent to regions outside the Gulf, too. This volume will particularly appeal to students and scholars interested in issues around language and identity, gender, language policy and planning, multilingualism, translingual practice, language in education, and language ideologies.

This open access book examines the teaching and learning of English for employability in Vietnamese higher education. Its content is framed within one country to better examine the research issues within the influence of contextual factors. This book investigates how English can contribute to the development of students' employability capitals, particularly in the aspects of human capital, social capital, cultural capital, identity capital, and psychological capital. It presents employers' and employees’ perspectives of how and why English is increasingly important for career development. This book is a collection of discussions and viewpoints from teachers, students, and other stakeholders like employers, graduates, and course coordinators on current practices and their proposed improvements to prepare students for their future education, work and life. Based on empirical evidence, this book calls for repositioning English language education within the employability agenda to elevate its status and increase stakeholders' engagement. This book contributes to current debates on advancing the effectiveness of English language education in non-English speaking countries, as a response to internationalization and globalization.

This Handbook discusses the theoretical and disciplinary background to the study of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education worldwide. It highlights issues relating to EMI pedagogy, varying motivations for EMI education, and the delivery of EMI in diverse contexts across the world. The spread of English as a teaching medium and the lingua franca of the academic world has been the subject of various debates in recent years on the perceived hegemony of the English language and the ‘domain loss’ of non-English languages in academic communication. Encompassing a wide range of contributions to the field of EMI, the chapters of this Handbook are arranged in four distinct parts: Part I provides an overview of English-medium instruction in higher education worldwide; Part II focusses on EMI in Europe; Part III on EMI in the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa; and Part IV on EMI in the Asian region. The overall scope and level of expertise of this Handbook provides an unrivalled overview of this field of education. It serves as an essential reference for many courses dealing with applied linguistics, English language education, multilingualism, sociolinguistics, and related subjects at many levels of education, including Master’s and PhD-level studies. This Handbook serves as a valuable edition for university libraries across the world and an essential read for many faculty, undergraduate and postgraduate students, educators, and policymakers.