Developing literacy in English and Arabic among young learners

Developing English and Arabic Literacy in young Emirati learners

Bio: Josephine O‟Brien has worked in several Arabic speaking countries over the last

twenty five years and currently teaches English and Arabic in Dublin, Ireland. She also

works as a teacher trainer. Her main areas of linguistic interest are psycholinguistics, the

influence of the L1 on language learning and acquisition, language systems and

geosemiotics. One of her primary concerns in language teaching is the washback effect of

the learning of English on the learner‟s mother tongue.

Abstract:

The paper discusses the socio-cultural and linguistics challenges facing young

learners in the UAE in developing literacy in both English and Arabic. The

ability to read is a learned skill that requires guidance and input from both the

home and school. The practice and habit of reading in both the home and

school provides an example and a support for the development of reading

among young learners. Linguistic factors inherent in the languages to be

learnt also affect the development of literacy in any foreign language. The

current paper considers both the socio-cultural and linguistic factors that

affect how a group of young Emirati learners in a bi-lingual environment view

the acquisition of literacy in both English and Arabic. Results suggest that

learners may find the acquisition of reading skills in Arabic more challenging

initially than English. This could have implications for the presentation of

both languages in learners‟ early education.

Key Terminology

MSA Modern Standard Arabic CA Classical Arabic diacritics signs over the Arabic word

(fatha , kasra damma ) – in this case used to represent short vowels in Arabic but not considered part of the 28 letter alphabet; they also function as case endings

L1 Learner‟s first language – in this case Arabic

L2 Learner‟s second language – in this case English

1. Introduction:

Language in its spoken form is a natural phenomenon and all of us irrespective of social

class, cultural conditions, economic and educational factors speak at least one language

unless there are some physical impediments. However, reading and writing must be

taught and learned. Literacy does not happen without guidance and support. Developing

literacy in one‟s first language takes time and effort as it does in all subsequent

languages. The current paper considers the socio-cultural and linguistic factors

influencing the development of bilingual reading in English and Arabic among a group of

native Arabic speaking children in the United Arab Emirates.

2. What is literacy?

Literacy can be defined as the ability to read and write in at least one language. With the

appropriate socio-cultural and linguistic input, these skills are acquired at a number of

cognitive stages in children‟s development. Once literacy is acquired in the first

language, it is argued that it is transferable to a second or other language as Maamouri

(1999, p.10) explains in his definition of literacy as “a universal set of transferable

reading and writing skills”. For skills to be transferable, however, a successful level of

literacy must be achieved in the first language. English and Arabic are alphabetic

languages in which the process of reading involves the recognition and decoding of lines,

shapes and visual representations on the page as letters, the recognition of letters as

forming words and the syntactic understanding of the relationships between these words

to form word phrases, clauses, sentences and ultimately meaning.

Linguistic realization of knowledge within a text is a manifestation of socio-cultural

realities and values of a society. The extent to which a society values literacy is bound to

affect the development of reading skills amongst young learners; a ready schema can

accommodate the knowledge contained in text, ensure the use of contextual clues and

facilitate the drawing of inferences from textual information. Bernhardt (1991) explains

that developing reading literacy involves three variables: linguistic in terms of letter,

word, and morphosyntactic knowledge, literacy in terms of knowing how to approach a

text and what to do with the text and knowledge in terms of having enough background

knowledge to help with text comprehension. Luria (1976) explains that when traditional

societies change the way they manage their economies, societies and cultures through

modernization, they become more cognitively oriented at the same time as they become

literate. Society in general moves from an oral to a written transmission of knowledge

and information and educating children in literacy skills becomes paramount. Many

factors contribute to this development. The current paper considers socio-cultural factors

within the environment of young learners and linguistic factors within the languages to be

learnt as influences in the development of English and Arabic literacy among a group of

young Emirati learners.

3. Socio-cultural factors

Literacy as already pointed out is taught but as Durkin (1966, p. 95) argues the “early

interest in becoming a reader is as much caught as taught.” Input from the home

environment is vital because if reading is not encouraged at the appropriate time, children

may not develop as readers (Ehri & Snowling, 2004).

3.1 Importance of socio-cultural environment to development of reading

Awareness of the importance of the socio-cultural environment in the development of

reading skills among young people was boosted by the work of Marie Clay (1960s) on

emergent literacy (Mowat, 1999). Initially, it was believed that the mental processes for

reading would happen naturally; children would read when they were ready and literacy

could be postponed to a certain age. However, as research accelerated, the importance of

the environment in developing reading skills was recognized. Literacy developed by

exposing children to the right kind of input both at home and in school. This awareness

resulted in the preparation of pre-school materials that incorporated the new

understanding of child psychology. Mowat (ibid) points out the importance of social

context and the interaction between adult and child in literacy development. This fits in

with Vygotsky‟s principles that children develop within a social environment mediated

by adults where intercognitive interaction facilitates intracognitive development within

the child (McCain & Mustard, 1999). Reading aloud to children prior to the development

of formal literacy and giving them time to discuss what was read was seen as vital, as

children‟s literacy begins long before formal education starts (McGee & Richgels, 1996).

Anderson et al (1985, p.23) suggest that “The single most important activity for building

the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. This

is especially so during the preschool years.” Children develop oral language skills,

awareness of the concepts of print and phonemic awareness of the connection between

sound and letters. Materials abound on the importance of home behaviour on the

development of literacy among young children as well as materials for the development

of English literacy. Research (Torgerson, C. J., Porthouse, J. & Brooks, G. 2003; Stites,

2000) also points to the restrictions on overall professional and social development

among adults deprived of reading stimulation.

3.2 Socio-cultural environment of the Arab world and reading

In the mid 20th

century, most of the countries of the Arabian Gulf were highly traditional

and oral, with a low literacy rate among adults. With the arrival of oil wealth in the 1960s

to 70s, these countries found themselves in a hurry to develop and to educate local

manpower to take over the operation of government and business institutions. Ahmed

(2010) points to the fact that many organizations and educational institutions hired

Westerners to run their programs because of a shortage of well-qualified home-grown

people to perform such tasks. However, along with this expertise came Western values,

ideologies and the English language which became the main medium of instruction. In

the United Arab Emirates, English was adopted as the medium of instruction in tertiary

education while primary and secondary schools continued to use Arabic. Many native

Arabic speaking people began sending their children to private English medium primary

and secondary schools. While this enhanced opportunities in university and employment,

it meant students‟ English literacy developed ahead of Arabic. Bindon & Lane (2011, 12)

point out that: “Many schools now teach in English because it is perceived as the

necessary international language, but such efforts also make it difficult to preserve the

quality and usage of the mother tongue”. When Emirati children who go to private

schools are read to, it is most often through the medium of English in the school context.

The use of a language in school that is not spoken at home, it could be argued, is bound

to affect both the language of the home and school. In addition, the language of home is

usually a dialect and not the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) that children are learning to

read at school. This, along with the fact that Gulf culture still retains strong elements of

its oral tradition and that family members read very little in Arabic and less in English

(Shannon, 2003), makes the development of reading among children within the socio-

cultural environment challenging. Alrabaa (2006, para. 8) says that reading in the Gulf

still lags behind developed countries and points out that many Arab leaders do not read.

Very few of them speak MSA well, which is learned as a second language. Censorship is

widespread and “schools and universities do not encourage reading extracurricular

publications.” According to a 2010 UNESCO report: “No more than 10,000 books were

translated into Arabic over the entire millennium equivalent to the number translated into

Spanish each year.” One library book is borrowed yearly for every four persons in the

UAE. Another UNESCO report cited in Al Salwa Book Report (2011, para. 10) reports

that “less than two percent of the Arab population reads one book a year, and the number

of published books averages to one book for every 19,150 citizens in the Arab World

compared to one for every 491 British citizens. Moreover, one third of older Arab

citizens are illiterate – two thirds of whom are women.” In many western countries the

lending rate is noticeably higher with every person borrowing four books a year

(UNESCO Report, ibid). Children, therefore, in the Arab World may lack the exposure to

the emergent literacy phase of home and parental input at a vital nurturing stage and

consequently may lag behind in the development of and interest in reading for both

purpose in school subjects and pleasure in their spare time.

In some cases, as has been observed by the author, children develop a belief that speaking

English provides them with a status that their monolingual Arabic speaking peers do not

have. They may neglect the development of Arabic language skills and appear fluent in

spoken English but fail to develop adequate literacy skills in both languages. The term

„semilingualism‟ was first used by the Swedish linguist Hansegard (1968), a term further

defined by Skutnabb-Kangas & Toukomaa (1976, p. 25) as “a linguistic handicap which

prevents the individual from acquiring the linguistic skills appropriate to his linguistic

potential in any of his languages”. It does not imply failure to communicate in ordinary

everyday situations, since children labelled as semi-lingual‟ are judged to be quite fluent;

but this fluency is alleged to be only superficial and to mask a deficit in the knowledge of

the structure of both languages.” Though there have been criticisms of the notion of

semilingualism as it failed to provide an adequate definition of linguistic potential,

Saville-Troike (1984) argues that semilingualism can be explained not through a

linguistic or cognitive deficit but more because of socio-cultural factors that are

responsible for poor normative linguistic achievement and scholastic results. The child is

affected by attitudes to the L1 and L2 and by the social context in which they operate.

This can be seen particularly in the context of English as a global language in the UAE

where English is given precedence over Arabic in the workplace (personal experience).

English in the UAE context is associated with the education and work environment for

those in English medium schools while spoken Arabic is associated with the home.

Where material was developed to encourage reading in the home it was usually in MSA

but the didactic nature of material written for children until quite recently (Mdallel, 2010)

has been cited as a deterrent to young readers. Children‟s literature like adults‟was seen

as a way of socializing young people (ibid) and preparing them for a society that was

heavy in political, social and religious censorship resulting in limited themes and a

classical didactic style that made some of the material reasonably inaccessible to young

readers. According to Mdallel (ibid), many Arabic language writers for children in the

Arab world saw the spread of moral values as laid out by Islam as the main purpose for

the works they created. There has, however, been a major positive shift in the production

of children‟s literature in Arabic since 2007 with literature developed for children‟s

reading pleasure being produced through publishing houses in Lebanon and Syria and

also from the USA where expatriate Arabs are anxious that their children develop literacy

in Arabic. (Alosh, 2010; Mdallel, 2010; Rand Report, 2011).

4. Linguistic factors

Another and probably even more relevant contributing factor to the development of

literacy and interest in reading is the linguistic component. Arabic speaking children in

English medium schools are classed as bilingual, a term used to describe a person who is

fluent in two languages. For children to grow up bilingual, according to De Houwer

(2006) there must be quite a large amount of input from both languages. Hulstijin (1991)

described the differences between L2 and L1 reading in skilled bilinguals as being similar

to differences in L1 reading between less skilled and skilled readers. This is measured

according to the automaticity of word recognition in terms of speed and accuracy in

reading. Results differ (cited in Guo 2011) from different programs in Canada, UK and

Australia and clearly there are many variables that can affect bilingual literacy. Two

variables influential in the development of English literacy among young Emirati

learners, it is argued, are the lack of literacy in the L1 when learners begin school and the

gap between the two varieties (colloquial and MSA) of L1.

Studies suggest that there are benefits for learners when both languages are alphabetic as

learners understand the connection between phoneme and grapheme, (Bialystok et al,

2005), as is the case with English and Arabic. However, if children are not literate in the

L1 before attending school through L2, it is impossible for them to transfer the

knowledge of how an alphabet works. Such children are developing cognitive and

literacy skills at the same time. Verhoeven (1990) points out that in such situations,

learners will have great difficulty in acquiring the analytic function of language and

transferring it to the L1 as they lack the necessary functional and social representations of

the L1 context. Children who have not learned the ability to deal with decontextualised

language face difficulties in learning to use language as a cognitive organizer in a

monolingual situation and the story is more complicated in a bilingual situation. Learners

are developing cognitive skills expected at their age but learning to express these through

a new language in a school environment that is also foreign to them. Skutnabb-Kangas &

Toukomaa (1976, p. 27) in a UNESCO study of Finnish children found that “competence

in the mother tongue had to be sufficiently established before the child could successfully

acquire a second language.” Bernhardt (1991) also stresses the importance of L1 literacy

in learning to read in L2. Second language learning in English medium schools is the first

experience Emirati children have of literacy and so they are encountering literacy in a

language they are learning to speak for the first time (Mustafa, 2002). At the same time

they are developing literacy in MSA which can differ considerably from the spoken

Arabic to which they are accustomed.

4.1 Linguistic factors in developing reading in English

So what kind of linguistic challenges do children face when learning to speak and read

English simultaneously? English is an alphabetic language with 26 letters though not a

purely phonetic language as there can be differences in the sound of letters represented by

the same letter and differences in the same sounds represented by different letters.

Children are often taught through the phonics method and according to Ideguchi (2008,

p.1), “phonological processing typically includes phonological awareness, phonological

memory and rapid automatised naming”. The next step is the mapping of the phonemes

to graphemes that represent the sounds. He suggests that problems with applying

phoneme to grapheme conversion rules can lead to poor reading ability. Sometimes this is

complicated in English as the letter can represent a “one-to-many” relationship. He cites a

study conducted by Oktay & Aktan (2002) on Turkish children whose comprehension in

reading improved greatly as the phonological processing skills developed. Here the

grapheme to phoneme correspondence is greater than in English. He concludes that

phonological processing skills are very important and that more attention should be paid

to the connection between these skills and reading ability. Arabic is a phonetic language

so in theory the mapping of grapheme to phoneme should proceed more rapidly than for

English. However, as well as the recognition of grapheme to phoneme, word recognition

is fundamental to the skill of reading (Ehri and Snowling 2004). Much research has been

done on how readers first begin to recognize words. Morton (1970), for example, talks

about the “logogen” model which describes a word detector for every word in a reader‟s

lexicon. McClelland & Rumelhart (1981) described what they termed an interactive

activation model (IAM) that involves process at the three levels of the visual, the letter

and the word.The visual stimulus helps readers to recognize not just a word but multiple

words with similar orthographic realization as in „cat‟, „cap‟ „can‟ leading to much faster

word recognition in a language like English (Coltheart et al, 1977). Whatever the

process, word recognition is fundamental to the skill of reading and contributes greatly to

the development of a good reader.

For young Arabic speakers the challenge in English reading is to recognize words that do

not have a phoneme to grapheme correspondence and to master the vowel system. The

absence of a heavy word grammar in terms of gender, case and plurals facilitates reading,

once word recognition takes place. Many challenges in terms of dealing with

subordinated clauses await learners as they progress as readers but in the initial stages,

English appears easier than Arabic (as reported to the author).

4.2 Linguistic factors and the development of reading in Arabic

Developing Arabic literacy among Gulf UAE children is complicated by the distance that

exists between the dialect spoken at home and MSA. Limited literacy in L1 affects the

L2. The complication with literacy in Arabic is that learning the formal written Arabic of

MSA is akin to learning a totally new language whose lexical items, vowel patterns and

syntax can differ radically from the language spoken in the home. Maamouri (1999, p.6)

refers to the low levels of educational achievement and high illiteracy rates in many Arab

countries and attributes these directly to “the complexities of the standard Arabic used in

formal schooling and non-formal education” . He explains that differences between both

varieties are found at the phonological, lexical and syntactic levels with MSA showing

inflections and case endings rarely used in the dialects, verb/subject/object order with

subject/ verb/ object order in dialects which also use more vowels than MSA.

Written Arabic is an alphabetic language consisting of 28 letters. It is also a phonetic

language in which there is a direct relationship between the sound one hears and how it is

spelt. This sound spelling correlation in Arabic may have a negative effect on how Arab

learners view spelling in English where spelling and sound correspondence is less

phonetic. However, all learners of English from native speaker children to second

language learners have to deal with this well documented phenomenon (Bell, 2004).

An Arabic dialect is spoken in every home throughout the Arab world but when children

go to school they learn Modern Standard Arabic, a variety generally closer to Classical

Arabic (CA) than to the home dialect. This gives rise to a diaglossic situation in which as

Wardaugh (2002) explains two distinct codes are used and selected according to specific

functions in Arabic speaking countries. This chapter focuses on one of these countries:

the UAE. Watson (2004) refers to the four phenomena that pertain to education in the

UAE: the use of MSA in the school system, the lack of knowledge among many Arabic

teachers of MSA, the shortage of materials in MSA and the use of English in third level

education. She also referred to the outdated methodology used by many Arabic teachers

in the teaching of MSA with learning based on repetition and memorization techniques

rather than communicative competence. This can be validated from the current author‟s

own experience and a range of informal reports from students at many levels.

Ibrahim, Eviatar and Aharon-Peretz (2002, p. 322) argue that learning to read Arabic is

harder than learning other languages because the “characteristics of Arabic orthography

slow its processing”. Two main features: the similarity of many Arabic letters with only

the number and position of dots to differentiate one from another (Table 1) and the

changing shapes of letters (Table 2) depending on position in the word compound the

reading process.

Table 1

b t th n y ب خ ز r z س ص d dh د ر j H kh ج ح ر

Maamouri (2005) points out that there are 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet but over 60

base forms because of the changing shapes of letters given their location in a word. The

following table gives examples of the shapes of one letter (somewhat equivalent to

English 'h') in various positions:

Table 2

د ىذ \ت دح \ ع \س

as an attached letter

representing „his‟ joined to

„house‟ and as an independent

letter because of the non-

joining letter „his father‟

medial letter as in

„river‟ and as the

suffix for her

tacked on to the

word „name‟

„h‟ as initial letter

in „he‟ and

„present‟

„h‟ standing

alone

A third challenging factor is the absence of diacritics representing short vowel signs and

sounds on many words though these are generally present on children‟s texts. The

following example illustrates the ambiguity that can arise from the absence of such

diacritics:

Table 3

teacher (female)

mdrsah school ذسعح

mdrsah ذسعح

mudarrisah عح ذس madrasah ذسعح

Ibrahim et al‟s (2002) study looked at the acquisition of literacy in Arabic, Hebrew and

English and found that word recognition time for English words is shorter than for the

other two languages and longest for Arabic words. They examined the effects of Arabic

orthography on early learners‟ identification of letter and grapheme to phoneme

conversion and found that the characteristics identified in the Tables 1 and 2 present

serious challenges to young Arabic learners. They conclude that the complexity of

Arabic orthography slows down word recognition as there is an overload of left

hemisphere activity in order to analyse each grapheme and then synthesize this to a word

and onto text comprehension. Additionally, in the absence of diacritics, there is a heavy

reliance on knowledge of the topic and the context to disambiguate meaning. These

factors may help explain why many teachers get students to memorize reading texts in

early learning rather than allowing children to figure out the words for themselves

(personal observation). This would involve more time and possible frustration.

5. Research – what the children think

Research was conducted by the author among a group of 20 children whose first language

is Arabic. These children are all Emirati and speak Emirati Arabic at home though all

have home help from a variety of countries. It can, therefore, be assumed that children are

exposed to a variety of dialects of English and Arabic at home and possibly other words

from Tagalog, Sinhalese and Amharic. The research was undertaken as a case study of a

core group to explore issues considered by the author from her experience to be factors in

the development of reading skills among Emirati learners and to influence subsequent

academic progress.

Children were asked to complete a questionnaire that explored socio-cultural and

linguistic factors that might affect the development of reading skills in both English and

Arabic. Questionnaires conducted in an interview mode were chosen as the medium of

data collection as they enabled the study to focus on an identified target age group (pupils

aged 7 – 8 years) with specifically defined questions linked to variables determined by

the literature and the research questions. Research with children of this age needs to be

conducted in a non-threatening environment and manner so it was considered best to talk

with each pupil individually and complete the questionnaire as we talked. This allowed

for explanation and elaboration where necessary, particularly where specific questions

needed to be asked on the morphological structure of words and variations in the lexical

items. The children were also asked to read a short piece from an Arabic version of Alice

in Wonderland and a translated English version of the same text. This section was

selected as it describes what a young girl does every day without containing any cultural

weight or didactic overtones. Responses were analyzed and categorized thematically

socio-cultural and linguistic factors in the development of reading among the learners.

All pupils come from an Arabic speaking Emirati home environment where Arabic is the

primary language spoken although some parents know some English and all have home

help who speak languages other than Arabic or English. All learners started their

education through the medium of English and did not know how to read and write Arabic

or English before starting school. Some learners had spent a year in English medium

kindergarten but did not begin literacy studies there, other than alphabet games. None of

the learners had been read to in either Arabic or English before starting school but all said

that they really enjoyed the teacher‟s reading of stories in both languages but those who

like to read (50%) said that they felt more comfortable borrowing and reading English

library books.

Table 4

Socio-cultural factors Yes No

Did your mother or father read to you in Arabic

before you started school?

0

100%

Did your mother or father read to you in English

before you started school?

0

100%

Does anyone speak English in your house? 50% 50%

Did you learn to read Arabic before you started

school?

0 100%

Which language do you prefer to speak? Arabic

100%

Which language do you prefer to read? English

50%

50% don‟t like

to read

Do you like listening to stories in English? 100%

Do you like listening to stories in Arabic? 75%

All asserted that they found English much easier than Arabic and identified more

challenging issues in Arabic than in English. Young learners highlighted the following

factors as difficult:

Table 5

Linguistic factors English Arabic

Learning the shapes of letters No Yes

Learning the differences between

letters that look the same

No Yes

Learning how letters change shapes No Yes

depending on position in a word

Learning the difference between big

letters and small letters

Yes No

Learning how to spell words Yes No

Learning how letters join to other

letters

a little Yes

Joining letters to make words No Yes

Learning how words can change their

shape

a little Yes

Reading sentences in a story No Yes

What is also interesting is that learners enjoy stories in both languages as evidenced in

Table 4, when someone reads to them and also enjoy speaking Arabic to each other

except when the other person does not know Arabic. Like most emerging bilinguals, they

are able to selectively manipulate both languages in their spoken form. However, with the

skill of reading, it would appear that English presents fewer challenges. The learners

were asked to read the short excerpt from a MSA Arabic version of Alice in Wonderland

with an English translation (by the current author). They were given the option of reading

the version of their choice first and fifteen out of twenty chose to read the English version

first. In every case, learners read the English version in approximately half the time they

took to read the Arabic version. The difficulties encountered in Arabic are discussed

under the following headings:

Letters: Learners pointed out that they found it easy to learn Arabic letters individually

but when they found them in a word they had to spend time breaking the word up into its

individual letters and then synthesizing these again to realize the word. They cited that

the inclusion of diacritics above and below the word to show short vowels also slows

reading down as readers decipher each sign. Every word in the text illustrates this

phenomenon. A few examples suffice to illustrate the challenge.

Table 5

Alice ىظ ه ط

the school ذسعح ه د س ط ج ى

young طغشج ص غ س ج

she rests ذغرشخ خ ط خ س ح

Morphology: The grammar of Arabic words requires prefixes, suffixes and infixes to

perform a range of functions. Several morphemes that are free in English are bound in

Arabic. The definite article is a prefix as seen in the example ‟the school‟ ذسعح ( ى )

above and is attached to the noun it describes. Possessive adjectives are attached to the

noun they qualify as suffixes as in „her sister‟‟ (أخرا) or to prepositions as indefinite

objects as in „in it‟ (فا). Subject pronouns are attached to the verb either as prefixes in

imperfective form „she goes‟ ذزة) ) and suffixes in the perfective form as in „she

went‟ ( رثد) and infixes in broken plurals as in 'the trees' (ىألشجاس ). It was clear

from learners‟ reading that deciphering meanings in such morphological structures

required more time and effort and along with deciphering unknown lexical items slowed

reading speed considerably. Table 6 gives some other examples from the text that caused

difficulties for learners and slowed down the reading process:

Table 6

„her age‟ „your age‟ age + possessive adjective

suffix „her‟ and „your‟

ا \\ ع عل\\ ع

its place/ the place of it place + possessive neuter

adjective „its‟

نا ناا\\

her studies infix for plural of study دسعا\\ دسط

the trees // the flowers infix/ internal changes in

the structure of plural words

أشجاس\ شجش

ش أصاس\ ص

strange news change in the shape of the

adjective to feminine form

to agree with plural neuter

noun

غشة..... خثش

ألسخثاس ىغشثح

the story/ the stories change in the ending of the

word to give feminine

plural

ىذنااخ\\ ىذناح

Lexical items: The difference between MSA and colloquial Arabic has been identified as

a challenge for young learners in acquiring literacy in the mother tongue (Abu Rabia,

2010; Alosh, 2010, Maamouri 2005). The main verbs used to describe Alice‟s daily

routine in the MSA version all differ from the local Emirati version and learners are

clearly more familiar with the local Arabic version. In reading the Arabic text, all learners

commented on the differences between their own spoken Arabic lexical items and the

MSA version. 50% of the learners had difficulties with fact that these lexical items (see

underlined versions in the appendix).

Sound and spelling: In the Emirati dialect of Arabic the „k‟ (ك) as „you‟ suffix is

realized as a „j‟ (ج ) and this is seen in the suffix „ عشج „ „your age‟. In spite of the

fact that the version provided used the „k‟ (ك) letter, most (90%) of students

pronounced this with the „j‟ (ر) sound.

Grammar items: There are many word grammar items such as case endings, gender that

make emerging literacy in Arabic more challenging than in English as evidenced in this

study and outlined in Table 7.

Table 7

a small girl case endings with the diacritic

„damma‟ on the end of noun and

adjective to show indefinite

nominative case

ت طغش ت ت

to the strange

country

the diacritic „fatha‟ underneath the

last letter of both noun and

adjective to indicate indirect object

after the preposition

ت د ىلجااة ى

in light housework the plural noun „works‟ requires

the feminine form of the adjective

„light‟

ف أعاه ىثد ىخففح

the two sat the dual form of the verb to refer

to Alice and her sister

ذجيغا

6. Recommendations and Conclusions

Learners developing literacy in English and Arabic simultaneously face great challenges.

English is the language of school instruction and through which it is expected success

will be achieved in school, university and employment. The motivation to learn it is

primarily instrumental and it is not the language of communication in the home. Spoken

Arabic is the language of the home but increasingly more and more parents feel the need

to encourage their children to read as illustrated in informal discussions with parents. If

they want their children to be competent readers in both English and Arabic, attention

must be paid to both socio-cultural and linguistic factors.

It is important to encourage and accommodate the development of literacy in

Arabic so that students enjoy learning and reading in their mother tongue. This

requires addressing the linguistic challenges with new materials and

methodologies as well as developing a socio-cultural environment where reading

is encouraged. In recent years particularly since 2007, there has been a concerted

effort to provide Arabic speaking children with Arabic books that are for pleasure

rather than didactic purpose with interesting socio-cultural themes as well as

linguistic appropriacy. Many of these initiatives are emerging from the desire of

expatriate Arabs to help their children know and preserve the Arabic language.

From a socio-cultural perspective, Arab parents must be encouraged to develop a

love of reading in their children and given professional development workshops

by schools thereby creating a sound learning community. It is not enough to go to

book fairs and buy a range of books for their children. They must sit and read

with them and discuss the topics covered in the text. Additionally, it must be

recognized that though English is easier than Arabic as reported by children in

this study, achieving competent literacy requires effort, support and long term

work.

A phenomenon that must be commented upon is the willing acceptance of UAE

decision makers to accept that most foreigners who come to work in their

countries do not require these workers to learn anything of their Arabic language.

It is often easier to take French or German classes than Arabic though in recent

years institutes for the teaching and learning of Arabic are beginning to appear.

The effort expended by Arabs to spread knowledge of their language and culture

is insignificant when compared with the more recent Chinese initiatives (personal

experience).

The complexities of Arabic as highlighted earlier in this chapter must be

addressed in material that accommodates learning for literacy purposes. Time

must be devoted to the differences in orientation of English and Arabic. If literacy

is to be developed in both languages so that children enjoy reading and see its

value as a source of pleasure and knowledge, much more attention and serious

research must be conducted on approaches to reading in general in the Gulf. In

particular, efforts must be devoted to developing competent functioning literacy

in both English and Arabic whereby neither language is sacrificed to the other.

In conclusion, this study illustrates that children make choices based on convenience and

interest. It is also clear that children enjoy being read to and learning to read and this is an

enthusiasm that must be explored and exploited in the correct manner. More extensive

research needs to be undertaken on the issues involved in developing bi-lingual literacy

and in particular bi-lingual literacy in the context of UAE children where it would appear

that the mother language needs a well thought out plan for development in a manner that

does not allow it to become a casualty of the development of the second language,

English.

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Appendices

A. Questionnaire

1. What is your first language?

Arabic English

2. What language do you speak at home? Arabic English

3. What language do you speak in school in the

classroom?

Arabic English

4. What language do you speak with your friends

during break?

Arabic English

5. Do you speak any other language at home with

your family?

always sometimes no

6. Did your mother or father read to you

in Arabic before you started school?

always sometimes no

7. Did you mother or father read to you

in English before you started school?

8. Does anyone speak English in your house?

9. At what age did you start learning English?

yes no

10. Did you learn to read Arabic before you started

school?

11. Which language do you find easier? Arabic English

12. Do you find the Arabic you learn in school more

difficult than the Arabic you speak at home and with

your friends?

yes no

13.Put an X beside the things you

find difficult about learning Arabic. Learning the sounds of the letters

Learning the shapes of the letters

Learning the differences between letters

that look the same

Learning how the letters change their

shapes in a word

Learning how letters join to other letters

Learning the letters that do not join to

other letters

Joining letters to make words

Learning how words can change shape

Learning how to spell words

Learning new words

Reading sentences in a story

14. Put an X beside the things you

find difficult about learning

English.

Learning the sounds of the letters

Learning the shapes of the letters

Learning the difference between letters that

look the same

Learning how to join letters in English

Learning the difference between big

(capital) letters and small letters

Joining letters to make words

Learning how words can change their

shape

Learning how to spell in English

Learning new English words

Reading sentences in a story

Yes No

15. Do you like listening to stories in English?

16. Do you like listening to stories in Arabic?

17. Do you like reading stories in English?

18. Do you like reading stories in Arabic?

19. Which language do you speak best? Arabic English

20. Which language do you understand best? Arabic English

21. Which language to you read best? Arabic English

22. Which language do you write best? Arabic English

23. Which language do you prefer to speak? Arabic English

24. Which language do you prefer to read in? Arabic English

25. Can you tell me why you prefer to read in this language?

B. Reading

Alice in Wonderland ىظ ف ت د ىلجااة Alice is a young pretty girl

about the same age as you.

د طغشج " أىظ " ت

ا, ىطفح ثو ع , عل

ىظ تد طغش

عشا ثو ظشف

She was seven years old

when she went to

Wonderland. Wonderland is

a place that nobody knows

exactly where it is. All that

the people know is that it is

very far away, very far.

Everything in it is very

strange, so strange that a

person cannot believe it.

Alice is a clever, obedient,

hard-working girl. She goes

to school and she pays

attention to everything that

the teacher says to her. After

that she returns to the house

and eats her lunch. She rests

a little and then begins to do

her studies. She writes her

homework and helps her

mother with easy housework.

As was her habit, Alice spent

time every evening in the

garden of the house with her

big sister and she sat with her

on the swing under the trees

and by the sweet smelling

flowers. Her sister told her

عثع فقذ ماد ف

شا ى رثد دا , ع

ت د " ". ت د ىلجااة "

ال لشف أدذ " ىلجااة

ناا مو ا لشف . ا تلذج ا أ ىاط ع

.......... تلذج جذ .......

ء فا مو ش أال ظذق , عجة غشة

. ىلقو

د رمح" أىظ" , ت

طلح ذج, ذزة . جر

ذسعح رث , ى ى ذ ى

عاذا ذس . مو ا ذقى

تلذ أ د ذلد , ى ىث

ه , غذ ءاذرا

ذثذ ء , قي ذغرشخ

ذنرة , دسعاذز مش ذغاعذ أا , جثاذا

د ىخففح أعاه ف . ىث

عادج ما " أىظ"

قد ىلظش ضه ذ ى أ

دج ع أخرا , ىث لا ف , ىنثشج ذجيغا

, ألسجدح ألشجاس ت

اد ألصاس , ىش

اذقض أخراماد عي

عشا ما عشجعثع ع خ

ى ت د عاسخ

اك ف . ىلجااة

دذ ت د ىلجااة

ناا مو ىولشف

لشف عا ا

تلذ جذ ...... تلذ

مو ش فا .....

عجة غشة

. ىلقواظذق

جظ تد رمأه

جطل جرذ

ذغش جشا طش

ذرث ى مو ج ىذسط

تلذ جاذقى ىذسط

ى ىثد ذشجع

ذشخ غذ ا ذامو

ذثذ ء تلذ جش

دسعا ذنرة ذش جع

جثاذا ذغاعذ ا

. ىضه عاهف

عادخ ىظ

ذضه قد ىلظش ى

ىثد ع خرا دذق

يلث ع ج ىنثش

ىذسفاتلض عي

ىسد ىشجشت

ىا خرا ذقض

nice stories and strange

news.

, ىيطفح ىذنااخ

...... ألخثاس ىغشثح

ىغ ىف ىقظض

......... ىغشث