Multilingual, bilingual, and monolingual Arabic teachers’ development of learner self‐regulation and language awareness in the Emirates

• Published in: Foreign language annals Vol. 54; no. 1; pp. 233 - 254
• Main Authors: Tang, Fei, Calafato, Raees
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Alexandria Wiley 01.03.2021; American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
• Subjects: Arabic; Arabic language; Behavioral Objectives; Bilingual Education; Bilingual Students; Bilingualism; Classrooms; Cultural heritage; Culture; Curricula; Demographics; Dialects; Educational Resources; Foreign Countries; Foreign language learning; Language Acquisition; language awareness; Language Teachers; language teaching; learner autonomy; Learning Strategies; Metacognition; Migration; Monolingualism; Motivation; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Multilingualism; Second Language Instruction; Secondary school students; Self concept; Semitic Languages; Students; Teacher Attitudes; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Transnationalism; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom > UK; Europe
• ISSN: 0015-718X; 1944-9720
• DOI: 10.1111/flan.12515

Multilingual learning and teaching have been receiving growing attention of late as many cities and states undergo significant demographic changes brought about by increasing levels of human migration. The onset of super‐diversity means that teachers often encounter students with very different language and cultural backgrounds in the classroom. This has created a new set of challenges and opportunities, especially concerning the teaching and learning of languages. As a result, research on language teaching and learning in super‐diverse contexts has acquired greater importance, yet the teaching of languages other than English (LOTE), specifically LOTE teacher beliefs and practices, has received comparatively little attention to date. To shed more light on teacher beliefs and practices as these concern the teaching of LOTEs to multilingual students, this study explored the extent to which 100 Arabic language teachers, working in UK‐curriculum secondary schools in the United Arab Emirates, used their students’ multilingualism as a resource during lessons and developed their self‐regulation and language awareness through specific activities. The findings regarding the participants’ efforts to develop their students’ self‐regulation and language awareness revealed an unexpected, negative correlation between their degree of multilingualism and their reported practices. The Challenge Foreign language teaching in super‐diverse contexts often consists of multilingual teachers and students from diverse backgrounds. How do teachers navigate and harness this super‐diverse multilingual environment when teaching languages other than English? This article explores Arabic teachers’ use of multilingualism as a resource in schools in the United Arab Emirates.