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Part of
Applied Linguistics in the Middle East and North Africa: Current practices and future directions
Edited by Atta Gebril
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 15] 2017
► pp. 89–113

Chapter 5
The age of global English

Language use and identity construction in the United Arab Emirates

| The American University of Sharjah

In the Arab world there is a conviction that Arab identity is grounded in Arabic and identity continues to arise as something over which Arabs must be vigilant in view of global English. Identity research today is transforming, and is viewed as fluid and unconstrained by language, culture, or geography. Recent publications on language learning and multilingual language practices reveal a post-structuralist approach to identity, when considering how identity is conceptualized in applied linguistics. This study examines Arab youth studying at an English medium university in the UAE and their perceptions regarding their native Arabic as significant in constructing an Arab identity. According to the results of the study, Arabic is not viewed as an identity marker.

Keywords: Arabic, global English, identity, globalization, EMI, UAE, mixed-methods
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Language use in the UAE
  • Literature review
    • Context of the study
    • Arabic as an identity marker
    • Arabic as an instrument of communication
  • The study
    • Research site and participants
    • Data collection and analysis
    • The questionnaire
    • The interviews
    • Validity and reliability
  • Findings
    • Perceptions and rationales of an Arab identity
    • Other markers of an Arab identity
    • Does speaking Arabic make one Arab?
    • Language use and identity
    • Overview of findings
  • Discussion
  • Limitations of the study
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 18 July 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.15.05dah
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