29.3384, Review: Afroasiatic; Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Language Acquisition; Pragmatics; Sociolinguistics: Gebril (2017)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-3384. Tue Sep 04 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.3384, Review: Afroasiatic; Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Language Acquisition; Pragmatics; Sociolinguistics: Gebril (2017)

Moderator: linguist at linguistlist.org (Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Helen Aristar-Dry, Robert Coté)
Homepage: https://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Jeremy Coburn <jecoburn at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2018 16:46:15
From: Camille Jacob [camille.jacob at port.ac.uk]
Subject: Applied Linguistics in the Middle East and North Africa

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36358758


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/28/28-3315.html

EDITOR: Atta  Gebril
TITLE: Applied Linguistics in the Middle East and North Africa
SUBTITLE: Current practices and future directions
SERIES TITLE: AILA Applied Linguistics Series 15
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2017

REVIEWER: Camille Jacob, University of Portsmouth

SUMMARY

This collection is part of John Benjamins's AILA (Association Internationale
de Linguistique Appliquée) Applied Linguistics Series and purposes to address
the lack of published research regarding the Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) (p. 2). It is aimed at scholars and students of Applied Linguistics as
a showcase, a resource and a roadmap of both existing and future research (p.
8). Following an introduction by Atta Gebril, who edited the volume and also
contributed its final chapter, the book is divided into three sections
entitled Language in Society, Language in Education and Future Directions.

The first section focuses on language use, including 'language and politics,
issues of identities, linguistic landscape, and language policy' (p. 2),
offering case studies from Tunisia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and
Lebanon. In the first chapter within this section, Naima Boussofara takes
Bourdieu's concepts of bodily hexis and authorised acts to demonstrate how
former Tunisian president Ben Ali's last three televised speeches in December
2010 and January 2011 exemplify the links between the body, speech acts and
linguistic, symbolic and political power. She describes his attempt at using
Tunisian Arabic instead of Modern Standard Arabic as a 'thwarted linguistic
coup' (p. 27) and contrasts Ben Ali's choices with the multilingual polyphony
of the streets (p. 23) and his predecessor Bourguiba's performative use of
Tunisian Arabic (pp. 20-33). Reem Bassiouney (Chapter 3), Alexander M. Lewko
(Chapter 4) and Marilyn Plumlee (Chapter 6) use different methodologies to
investigate the complexity of the contemporary Egyptian linguistic context.
Based on Egyptian films that tackle the question of religion directly as well
as patriotic songs, Bassiouney shows that 'language variation in Egypt,
especially phonological and syntactic variation, is based on locality, class,
gender, and factors other than religion' (p. 43) and that religiosity, rather
than the religion itself, is often mentioned as a shared characteristic of an
Egyptian national identity (pp. 51-58). Looking at the Cairene linguistic
landscape, Plumlee highlights the fact that the multilingual signage is less a
symbol 'of a new-found super-diversity' than confirmation of a rich heritage
(p. 115), from the Rosetta Stone to signs in French and Greek, now
complemented with Korean, Chinese, Somali, Malay and English (pp. 125-142).
The inclusion of nearly thirty colour photographs allows the author to discuss
the dynamics of the linguistic landscape and how these intersect with changes
in the social context, including migration, socio-economic make-ups of
neighbourhoods, the use of arabizi (Arabic written using the Latin script,
commonly found online) and the connections between English and elite closure,
as well as mentioning areas requiring further research (pp. 155-156). In
contrast, Lewko used questionnaires and interviews to investigate the
attitudes of undergraduate students at an English-medium private university
with regard to English, and its links to solidarity and power. He notes how
ownership of English and perceptions of the language as elitist varied
depending on context of use (pp. 72-77) and suggests some implications for the
classroom (pp. 78-81). Similarly, Laila S. Dahan (Chapter 5) draws on
questionnaires and interviews with her students in the UAE to question how
Arabic and English feature in their construction of identity, arguing that
'this group of Arab youth has found a comfort zone between their Arab identity
and the global English and globalisation which surrounds them' (p. 106). The
final chapter in this section (Chapter 7) takes a historical approach to the
'ongoing rivalry' between English and French in Lebanon, from missionary
language policies before 1920 (pp. 163-164) to today's choices of language in
schools and the media (pp. 168-171) and attitudes towards language mixing (p.
174). Kassim Shaaban concludes his contribution by contending that the real
question for Lebanon is the impact of these dynamics on the use of Arabic in
the country, rather than the competition between two foreign languages (pp.
175-178).

The second section comprises six chapters about language in education in the
MENA, covering surveys of the entire region (Chapters 10 and 12) as well as
case studies of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt (Chapters 8, 9 and 11
respectively) and an overview of the use of corpora in teaching and learning
Arabic vocabulary (Chapter 13). Two of these chapters are directly concerned
with language requirements and pre-entry testing in higher education settings.
Bjorn Norrbom and Abdulrahman Al-Shamrani (Chapter 9) assess the Standardised
Test of Arabic Proficiency in Speakers of Other Languages (STAPSOL) developed
in Saudi Arabia as a prerequisite for 'non-native speakers' who wanted to
pursue Arabic-medium undergraduate study (p. 207). This chapter both reviews
available information about other existing tests (pp. 204-206) and evaluates
the reliability, sensitivity and validity of STAPSOL for 'test takers and test
score users' (p. 210-219). Deena Boraie, Elizabeth Arrigoni and Jonah Moos
(Chapter 10) focus on English-medium universities instead, investigating both
the language criteria used for selection and the availability of language
support. By bringing together data from across the MENA region, this chapter
aims to provide 'a baseline for future investigations into specific practices
related to test score use and interpretation' (p. 228). In Chapter 8, Dudley
W. Reynolds discusses a theoretical model of multilingual reading (pp.
186-189) and uses action research to draw up and evaluate a pilot assessment
instrument of the multilingual reading strategies used by Qatari pupils in
science (pp. 191-197), also offering further suggestions and alternatives (pp.
197-198). Chapters 11 and 12 explore teacher training in contrasting ways,
with Hanada Taha outlining an overview of Arabic language teacher education
across the region, whereas Lori Fredricks analyses computer-mediated
narratives-in-interaction regarding culture, teaching and language acquisition
in student teachers from Egypt and the United States enrolled at an Egyptian
university. The latter (Chapter 12) exemplifies both the role narratives serve
in teacher reflection (pp. 264-265) and the pedagogical potential of online
forums (p. 259). Drawing from existing literature, international standardised
tests and online information about pre-service training in Oman, Bahrain,
Qatar and Egypt, Hanada Taha (Chapter 11) argues that the poor results
obtained by Arabic-speaking countries in the Progress in International Reading
Literacy Study (PIRLS) are due to the lack of attention paid to literacy in
education reforms (p. 273), the low status of Arabic language teachers (p.
270-272) and the uneven quality of pre-service training and continuous
professional development (pp. 274-282). The final chapter in this section
(Chapter 13) concerns itself with giving 'an overview of some key aspects of
Arabic lexis that can be examined straightforwardly with corpora' (p. 289).
Ashraf Abdou uses five existing Arabic corpora to present specific teaching
examples, before offering broader suggestions of how corpus-based
investigations can be integrated into decisions about language progression in
textbooks or used to increase learners' autonomy and trainee teachers'
reflexivity (pp. 301-303).

The third section of the book contains three theoretical and conceptual
chapters investigating the future of language use in the region in view of
'the dynamic interaction among different variables including globalisation,
technology, and sociopolitical realities' (p. 7). In Chapter 14, John Eisele
reviews existing research on Arabic 'futurology' (pp. 310-314) and the tropes
of unity, purity, competition and continuity (p. 319). He then explains the
contradictory and complementary trends between the macro level, where
Classical Arabic exerts a centripetal force towards greater unity, and the
micro level, 'towards increased genomic diversity' (p. 328-339). Aiming to
take the concept of language proficiency beyond a focus on assessments, Mahdi
Alosh (Chapter 15) proposes to apply the American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Language Proficiency Guidelines to Arabic curriculum
design and teaching methods. Finally, mirroring the structure of this volume
Atta Gebril (Chapter 16) suggests trajectories for future research on
'language in the society' (pp. 364-368) and 'language in education' (pp.
369-373). The recommended themes include identity building in refugee
communities (p. 365), online speech communities and language change (p. 366),
linguistic landscapes in rural areas (p. 367), linguistic diversity in the
classroom (p. 371), why and how to teach English (p. 372), and teaching
training (p. 373).

EVALUATION

As the editor points out, the MENA receives relatively less international
academic attention than other regions regarding Applied Linguistics, and as
such the present volume is a welcome addition to the literature. It combines a
broad range of topics and of methodologies, thereby providing a helpful
showcase of the breadth of research currently being undertaken about languages
in and about the MENA. The extensive bibliographies provided by each
contributor mean that the volume is an excellent springboard from which to
explore further, and the focus on Arabic teaching and learning is particularly
welcome. As Boraie, Arrigoni and Moos (Chapter 10) mention, the challenges of
access to information, whether because of institutional practices or
individual reluctance, are a particular problem for comparative research (p.
234). Nonetheless, it is disappointing that the opportunity was not seized to
build more bridges with Arabic-language academic research: many chapters'
bibliography only contain sources written in English, and in other chapters
the Arabic sources seem to have been translated without providing the original
title.

While the volume will be of interest to all researchers working on the MENA
region, it is particularly strong on its Egyptian chapters, with Bassiouney,
Lewko and Plumlee providing in-depth and complementary case studies of the
links between linguistic practices, identity and social change. Beyond its
diverse thematic foci, this collection is therefore particularly recommended
to scholars working on Egypt and on the Gulf, and would be an enlightening
complement to Robert Kirkpatrick’s overview of English language education
policies in the region (2017). As fourteen out of the eighteen contributors
are from American universities or outposts of US universities in the MENA
(including six from the American University in Cairo), it would have been
interesting to know more about how the chapters were selected and whether
expertise at those institutions differs from that of other Higher Education
Institutions in the region.

Nonetheless, this is a recommended read for researchers working on the MENA
region, and scholars of Sociolinguistics and Didactics more generally will
find individual chapters worthy of reflection and discussions.

REFERENCES

Kirkpatrick, Robert (ed.). 2017. English Language Education Policy in the
Middle East and North Africa. New York: Springer.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Camille Jacob is a PhD candidate at the University of Portsmouth (UK). Her
research interests include linguistic practices in postcolonial settings, the
production of discourses about languages and identity, and contemporary
Algeria.





------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:

              The IU Foundation Crowd Funding site:
       https://iufoundation.fundly.com/the-linguist-list

               The LINGUIST List FundDrive Page:
            https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-29-3384	
----------------------------------------------------------