This book provides a nuanced portrait of the complexities found within the cultural and linguistic landscape of the United Arab Emirates, unpacking the ever-shifting dynamics between English and Arabic in today’s era of superdiversity. Employing a qualitative phenomenological approach which draws on a rich set of data from questionnaires to focus groups with Emirati students, Emirati schoolteachers, and expatriate university teachers, Hopkyns problematizes the common binary East-West paradigm focused on the tension between the use of English and Arabic in the UAE. Key issues emerging from the resulting analysis include the differing attitudes towards English and in particular, English Medium Instruction, the impact of this tension on identities, and the ways in which the two languages are employed in distinct ways on an everyday scale. The volume will particularly appeal to students and scholars interested in issues around language and identity, language policy and planning, multilingualism, translanguaging, and language in education.

The book analyzes recent changes to the identities and cultures of the GCC countries. These important transformations have gone largely unnoticed due to the fast-paced changes in the region that affect all aspects of society. The volume unpacks these transformations by looking from a holistic perspective at the intersections of language, arts, education, political culture, city, regional alliances and transnational identities. It offers selected case studies based on original research carried out in the region. Chapter 7, ‘Identity Lost & Found: Architecture and Identity Formation in Kuwait and the Gulf’, of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com

Focusing on English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in the Arab Gulf states, the authors consider both sociolinguistic and pedagogical perspectives, and explore practical implications. This edited volume features chapters covering how teachers are negotiating the linguistic challenges posed by EMI; issues of ownership, choice and agency; the scaffolding of academic literacies; how to support the development of content teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in EMI settings as well as the benefits of a bilingual education. Chapter authors all have extensive local experience that they draw upon reflectively in their writing. Policy-makers, teachers and teacher educators wondering how they can best balance the need to develop competence in English in students of all ages on the Arabian Peninsula in a globalizing world, together with the concern to nurture Arabic language, culture and identity, will gain rich insights from this book. Postgraduates and researchers exploring issues surrounding EMI, both locally and internationally, will benefit from the arguments presented in this volume.

This edited collection explores plurilingual education in the unique English medium instruction (EMI) context of the Arabian Peninsula. The book argues that integrating a plurilingual pedagogy alongside current EMI in the region could enhance students’ learning and contribute to a language policy that embraces linguistic diversity while fostering regional identity. It brings together the work of experts in Arabic and English language policy and planning, presenting empirical research relating to plurilingual pedagogical practices within the region. The book offers a range of recommendations for educators on how to integrate plurilingual pedagogies in classroom teaching. This becomes more important since many educators in the region are non-Arabic speakers and are teaching students with diverse linguistic backgrounds through English. With a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to the linguistic landscape in the Arabian region, this book will be of great interest to researchers, scholars, and students in the fields of applied linguistics, language education, teacher education, and EMI.

Based on range of global case studies, this book expands current work on translingual playfulness through an exploration of precariousness.

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 volume sets out to investigate the linguistic ecologies of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai, with chapters that combine empirical and theoretical approaches to the sociolinguistics of multilingualism. One important feature of this publication is that the five parts of the collection deal with such key issues as the historical dimension, language policies and language planning, contemporary societal multilingualism, multilingual language acquisition, and the localized Englishes of global cities. The first four sections of the volume provide a multi-levelled and finely-detailed description of multilingual diversity of three global cities, while the final section discusses postcolonial Englishes in the context of multilingual language acquisition and language contact.