Bilingualism in Arabic Learners

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

Research Background

This proposed research is an ethnographic case study that examines the experience of five Arabic learners in the United Kingdom while taking into consideration the limitations and implications encountered. This research will also seek to investigate to what extent this learning process may influence or even prevent young learners from acquiring the aforementioned language. Having to learn another language, despite the context, implies that a child will grow up, potentially, as a bilingual. In 2006, Pinter (2008), defined bilingualism as ‘speaking two languages with the same fluency of a native speaker. Languages can be learnt simultaneously (3 years old) or sequentially, such as when introduced at a later stage (McLaughlin et al., 1995; Pinter, 2006; Tabors, 2008). Children of the first case may have been exposed to a language by their parents when, for example, the mother talks to the child in one language while the father communicate in another language (e.g. Arabic and English). On the other hand, sequential bilingualism involve children who have become familiar with one language only but are later introduced to a second language. An example is when children are introduced to second language in school as part of educational programme. This may happen later in life, potentially at any age. Arabic is spoken in 26 different nations across North Africa and the Middle East and it’s a language that unites at least 400 million native speakers in the Arab world, as well as a lingua franca of Muslims worldwide (Kemp, 2014). Written Arabic is deemed to be ‘the language of the Quran and therefore of the Islamic faith, and as such, it has changed remarkably little since the Middle Ages’ (ibid.). (Citation) It is very important to understand that, learning a foreign language in a different cultural context carries many relevant implications with it. Firstly, speaking successfully in a different language means that, there should be a clear and good communication. Effective communication in a foreign language depends on more than merely knowing the lexicon, grammar or phonology as ‘it involves the processing of cultural as well as linguistic knowledge’ (Labidi, 1992). Languages have their own ways and strategies, which massively change from culture to culture (ibid). In the specific case of Arabic language, grammar and morphology work in a total different way from all other Indo-European languages (Calderbank, 2015). As the learning style also varies according to the teaching fashion, Labidi (1992), states that the Arab student would have learning styles that differ from, his/her English counterpart or, more broadly, his Western counterpart (ibid). This occurs as a result of the Arab world not sharing the same background to the West world because of the different cultures. The author also acknowledges how the Arab culture is influenced by his Western counterpart although this influence remains evident in the ‘form’ more than in the ‘spirit’ which is still Eastern (Labidi, 1992).

This research has eventually tried to underline the factors influencing Arabic learning and some recommendations have been given in order to facilitate the acquisition of this language. I would like this study to be an interesting and intriguing piece of research that hopefully will help shine more light on the still grey areas around Arabic language learning. This work will be divulged through the university online platform and more than a copy will be printed out for purposes of reserving the study in the library. Both students and teachers will be able to benefit from this study and can also be used as reference to their future study on the topic. The reader will enjoy the variety of the aforementioned topics and will hopefully extend their personal knowledge about them.

Reason for Choosing the Topic

The choice of this topic is based on my personal experience as an English and Arabic teacher. I realised that the methods that teachers follow in helping students’ acquisition of another language are crucial. As a teacher, I care about my students being supported as much efficiently as possible; minimizing any discomfort, students may come across throughout their learning process.

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Research Implications

Elgibali (2005) states that there are different types of Arabic language which includes: classical, modern standard (also known as fus-ha, literally ‘the purest’) and dialects. As every form has its own rules and grammar, it can be really hard for the speaker – especially if he/she is a learners – to acquire and use all of them in the right way and context. Additionally, he mentions the existence of a core language which is similar for all the varieties and that “it has been shown that a description of this grammar can be very useful in teaching Arabic as a foreign language” (ibid.). If this core grammar can be learnt by learners, it seems that students may be less likely to put excessive efforts and commitment to memory to remember all the different features of the language. In fact, research indicate that that, learning to read and write Arabic isn't as huge challenge as most people imagine (Kemp, 2014). Educational systems have a massive impact on children’s learning processes and needs to be almost individually tailored. As Eickelman said in 1978, schooling is a major determinant in transmitting a set of profound cultural schemata and patterns that will eventually shape and influence the recipients’ cognitive behaviour. Therefore, it is very important that the foreign language is learnt in a way that resembles and reflects almost its original cultural and linguistic aspects. Currently, there are no specific laws that regulate any educational practices for bilingual or multilingual individuals. Nevertheless, in the past years, the Ministry of Education has shown interest on how to train lecturers for this purpose. A report by the British Council Arabic Language and Culture Programme, in 2016 showed that, Arabic was being taught in schools in the UK. This report contained data collected by Leeds University, Edinburgh University and Goldsmiths and University of London in relation to Arabic teaching and learning, and focused on how Arabic was being taught including teaching methodologies, resources and learning strategies currently being employed in teaching Arabic as a foreign language (TAFL) in schools (British Council, 2016). Therefore, this research has shown an important development in dealing with the lack of knowledge in the field, therefore becoming important to hence becoming importance to carry out the research to analyse how Arabic is being taught.

Research Questions

In this research, the following questions are analysed:

What are young learners’ feeling and attitudes towards learning Arabic?

What factors influence their understanding of Arabic

What are students’ attitudes to the techniques and methods introduced and how can teaching be improved?

What beneficial outcomes can Arabic bring to these children?

Overview of Methodology

In order to investigate properly these questions, the researcher used a qualitative case study. As will be widely explained in the methodology section, data were collected by using a preliminary questionnaire for every participant and followed by interviews. This research commits to Data Protection Act legislations because of the working with under eighteen years old individuals. For this reason, participants have been identified by pseudonyms. Each participant was asked to fill in and sign an informed consent form prior to taking part in the study and provided with an information sheet describing the research project and including researcher’s contact details (see appendices). Data will be kept securely in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Participants have been informed about the possibility of opting out at any time without the necessity to provide a reason for it. All the members involved in the study live in the area of Butetown, a district in the South of Cardiff, capital of Wales. Some of the largest communities that settled here in the 19th century include; the Somalis, Yemenis and Greeks, whose influence is still present nowadays. The small borough is indeed qualified as Wales’ oldest multi-ethnic area (Buelens, 2017). According to the 2011 census, Butetown is categorised by the Office of National Statistics as being within a city or larger town surrounded by inhabited countryside. The district counts 353 people and 152 households. The population density (people per hectare) is 30.80. Around 65.7% of the population here is white and 11.3% is black. Only around 45% of individuals living in this community identify themselves as white as per Welsh (2011), Census Key Statistics – Butetown). This suburb hosts the Pier Building, which play an important role for the Cardiff’s economic prosperity, as it serves as the headquarters of the Bute Dock Company. In addition, the district is considered a place full of culture and in love with art exhibitions, often held at The Millennium Centre which is also the home to the Welsh National Opera and the BBC National Orchestra (ibid.). The participants of this research all attend the Yemeni Community Centre in Butetown. This centre was funded more than a decade ago and is run by Daood Saeed with the help of Samira Shaddad (Director of Projects) and coordinators Amanda Brace and Samantha Sullivan. Many activities take place in this building such as regular Arabic and English classes for both children and adults, initiation to Quran and Islamic studies and special occasions such as Eid and weddings (held in a big hall). The mission of the centre is focused on developing and implementing initiatives which embrace and enrich the education, training, employment, health, social, cultural and recreational needs of the local community. Three teachers (including myself) work in the centre on weekends, from 10am to 2pm. The Arabic classes count about 50 students from mixed backgrounds including Sudanese, Somali, Iranian, Yemeni, Nigerian and Indians.

Outline of the Research

This research work is divided into five main chapters.

In chapter two the reader will be introduced with a review of the literature that has been consulted and carefully read. This is then further organised into an introduction and a body which compare the Arabic and English language considering the main factors involved in both languages in the British context such as customs, traditions and cultures. In chapter three, the research methods, design and strategy have been analysed taking into account the appropriate ethical considerations and the arrangement for data collection and their analysis. These were encouraged by my role as a teacher, which is also dealt with at the beginning of this chapter. Chapter four characterises the results and findings of this work and focuses on the heart of the research. The reader can now learn how the participants reacted and responded to the questions they were asked. Pie charts and bar charts statically analysed the data collected which are expressed in the form of percentages. Within this chapter, a certain number of factors (e.g. age and gender) have been listed and explain as able to impact on the learning process. In the conclusions of this piece of work, the implications met for the production of this research have been underlined. A separate paragraph was dedicated to the factors determining Arabic learning. Also, different recommendations that parents may benefit from to successfully guide their young learners. At the end of this chapter, my professional developments together with the methods through which this dissertation will be disseminated are discussed. At the end of this dissertation, a list of appendices is attached including a study consent form, a questionnaire and the transcripts of the recorded interviews between the researcher and students.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1. Introduction

This chapter is a review of literature about the Arabic language being taught in the United Kingdom. A thematic approach has been adopted in order to introduce all the topics in an organised and clear fashion. The two languages, Arabic and English, will be discussed, mentioning a few of authors’ opinions and relevant pieces of work. A comparison and contrast between the two languages has also been discussed. This research has made an attempt to underline the main factors involved in Arabic learning by British individuals. This work will also try to discuss whether Arabic language may well bring any sort of benefits to the British populations, such as social and professional advantages or cognitive benefits such as improved mental skills, potentiated neural connections or more activated areas of the brain deputed, for instance, to memory or problem-solving abilities. An approach to psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic is hence dealt with, mentioning a couple of researchers from this fascinating and complex field. Some pieces of literature will be consulted about what the most appropriate methods of Arabic teaching may be, giving some recommendations to current and future teachers as well as to all those people who simply show an interest to this subject.

Culture and Language Teaching

The concept of culture in language teaching is important. It is also crucial to remember how the objectives of the teaching of a second or a foreign language ​​have evolved and the treatment given to the cultural component (Hervey et al., 2016). There exists close correlation between culture and language. On the one hand, people`s beliefs and cultural thoughts, are expressed using languages, and on the other one, culture is usually embedded in the language. According to Ambrossi (2015), language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language. The two are interwoven intricately in a way that, it is impossible to separate one from the other without losing the significance of either culture or language. Language is used to describe and interpret the culture. Through the use of a language, cultural groups are able to share information and ideas. It is also a way in which culture is transmitted. McCarthy and Carter (2014) argue that there exists a function of communication in both culture and language because they both carry meanings. While a language carries semantic, pragmatic and syntactic meanings, a culture is expressed through the behaviour and rules in a group. So as to successfully communicate across cultures and languages, it is necessary for one to have a good understanding of culturally different norms of interaction and peoples thoughts and values. The selection of sociocultural content depends on the overall objectives and the characteristics of the learner (needs, interests, attitudes, skills, level of knowledge and experience of the foreign country, etc.) (Dewaele & Al-Saraj, 2015). It is known that, learning a different language can be difficult and that, some children are more successful in learning a second language than others. Many children have different styles in the learning process, For instance, some people tend to be more tolerant than others (Piper, 2001) Recently, psychologists and neurologists agreed that language learning is broadly affected by the function of the two hemispheres – left and right. Generally speaking, children who are confident, analytical, competitive and rational make use of their left hemisphere whereas who are more creative and artistic tend to use the right hemisphere (ibid. p.30) Reflectivity and impulsiveness also play a role during language learning as some children may spend more time reflecting upon, the structure of a language when other individuals would just skip this consideration (ibid. p.33).

Somali and Yemeni Communities in the UK

The Yemenis and Somali`s found in the UK are normally citizens from British and also residents whose ancestors are either in Yemen or Somalia. With an estimated 98,000 immigrants from Somalia in the UK in 2016, it is with no doubt evident that the UK is home to the largest Somali community across the entire Europe. While most of these Somali`s reside in England- specifically London, there is also a sizeable population in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, Milton Keynes, Cardiff and Leicester. The 1980s and 1990s civil war across Somalia led to the increase in the number of Somali immigrants across Europe. Individuals who escaped into UK during the civil wars actually make up most of UK`s Somali population. The mother tongue of the Somali people is the Somali language. The language is a member of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. According to the UK census of 2011, 85,918 individuals residing in London were recorded as speaking in Somali as their main language. This is roughly 0.16% of the entire population of England and 2.06% of individuals who do not speak English as their main language. Relatively, across the entire Scotland, only 1050 individuals were recorded as speaking Somali. Majority of the Somali`s in the UK also speak Arabic, which is another Afro-Asiatic tongue. In Somalia, Arabic is even one of the official languages. From the 2011 census, quite a good number of Somali`s indicated Somali and not English as their main languages. While quite a good number of these Somalis were able to communicate in English, there also existed a sizeable number of them who could neither communicate in English very well nor speak in English at all. Only a relatively low number of the Somali`s recognised English as their official language. On the other hand, Yemenis have been present in the UK since the 1860s and are with no doubt the most established Muslim group in the entire Europe. There are currently however, other British Muslim groups that are larger than the Yemenis. It is observed that Yemenis are present across the whole of Europe and there are notable populations of them across the cities of Birmingham, Cardiff, Hull, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newport, Sheffield, South Shields, and Swansea. It`s quite notable that a significant portion of the Yemenis settled in Britain to this day struggle with the choices of belonging, home and identity.

Main Factors Intervening in the Learning of Arabic

Social Context

It is important to note that society plays a very important role in the learning process of a foreign language such as Arabic. Also the social context surrounds the learners of a language in many ways (Cook, 2016). Dörnyei (2014), states that social capital can include a number of close friends: the presence of two parents in case, the number of brothers or sisters, as well as extracurricular activities. The knowledge that parents have about their children's friends, the employment of the parents, the care and the interest that they have in the education of their children have a considerable impact on the way children learn . All these resources are in charge of providing the necessary contribution that the students require to achieve their academic achievements (ibid, 2014). Dewaele and Al-Saraj (2015) established that the social context is directly involved in the positive or negative outcomes when learning a foreign language. In the process of learning a foreign language, some theories insight that the role played by the mother tongue is key (Saville-Troike & Barto, 2016). In addition, research argues that this can favour the acquisition and learning of a foreign language if this is similar to the target language like Spanish and Italian (Alrabai, 2015). This facilitates the learning of a foreign language because both have the same or similar form (Ortega, 2014).

Individual Characteristics

The learning of a foreign language is affected by the students’ individual factors such as individual unalterable and alterable factors. The first category is related to the mode of instruction, age, gender and the individual mother tongue which are immutable (Saito et al., 2016). Among the second class are factors that also refer to the mode of instruction, but also encompass socio-psychological elements such as attitude and motivation of the student when it comes to performing effective learning (Oxford, 2016). The background of the participants of this research is being somehow relevant and determinant for their learning process. Two out of five participants have never travelled back to their original country because of the status of war and poverty that characterised these areas. As a result of this, they communicate daily with their relatives in order to maintain strong relationships over time. In this way they actually practice more Arabic. Interestingly, the latter of the two aforementioned categories are particularly helpful to determine the impact of these factors throughout the learning process. As a matter of fact, Urquhart & Weir (2014), state that an effective learning cannot take place if an individual is hindered or conditioned by certain aspects proper to their personality, attitude and beliefs. Self-concept, motivation and anxiety are the three variables with the greatest explanatory power of feeling in formal contexts of teaching and learning. Also, within the process of learning a foreign language, the level of difficulty depends on which language is being taught, the learning context and the student’s age which all are determinants for the learning to be successful (Zarrinabadi, 2014).

Cognitive Factors

These factors are paramount when it comes to teaching and learning. It is always necessary to recognise the different biological factors between individuals (Golonka et al., 2015). These must not be separated from the context in which students learn, making researchers recognise the complexity of learning a foreign language (Al Musawi et al., 2016). Those factors directly related to the student are particularly important. Certainly, teacher-related factors still play a role, such as level of knowledge and emphasis shown in teaching. Cognitive factors such as intelligence and memory are crucial in determining the ability to learn other languages. All people have the ability to learn a second or foreign language as our memory works as storage for information and data as they are processed and learnt (Dewaele & Al-Saraj, 2015).

Teacher's Role to Improve the Level of their Students

The role of the teacher is acquiring more and importance over time. It is well-known that language and culture are inseparable, being both of them influenced by the surrounding external environment. Therefore, a teacher of a foreign language must know the relationship that exists between a language and its culture. For this reason, their teaching methods must also take into account cultural norms (Saville-Troike & Barto, 2016). The process of learning a foreign language in its different stages is fraught with obstacles to students. This is why a teacher must be able to help them overcome potential challenges. Every teacher of a foreign language should know how the learning process takes place. A language is an instrument of communication with its grammatical, lexical-functional and cultural tools. Hence, it is important that the teacher finds and applies communication strategies which allow them to increase their linguistic competence and also communication (Alrabai, 2015). There must be a balance between challenges and satisfaction of students to keep them motivated for them to continue working with their teachers. The objectives for the teacher of a foreign language must consist of teaching the basic rules of the language as well as the different methodological approaches, tool and techniques for the acquisition of different skills (Albirini, 2015).

Role of the Students to improve their Level in Foreign Languages

The role of the teacher is not enough for the student to success. The most important aspects to take into consideration are interest and motivation. It is necessary that students acquire the foreign language with commitment and pleasure as well with positive feelings and behaviour. A teacher can help students developed appropriate strategies to make adjustments to the conversation. An example can be helping the students to interpret the signs of their interlocutors when they seem not to understand the conversation (Gass & Glew, 2018). According to Zarrinabadi (2014), the superimposition of the structures of the first language on a foreign language can interfere with learning to an unconscious level without the student realising it. On the other hand, at the same time it is important to acknowledge that language alterations and interferences can be used as strategies to aid the learning procedure.

Community and Supplementary Language Schools in the UK

Complementary and supplementary schools refer to the provision of education that is made available for minority ethnic communities on a basis that is voluntary for their children outside the main-stream school hours. At times, these classes are also normally referred to as Saturday or Sunday schools. Traditionally, the name complementary is used for schools whose main purpose is normally the provision of mother tongue lessons. It has been proven that when the cultural identity and bilingualism of a child is nurtured, their sense of self-esteem and self-identity increases and they tend to grow up as achievers who are quite confident of themselves. A significant role can be played by these schools in the nurturing of cultural identity and bilingualism. The operation of these schools is mainly through efforts from the community.

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the methodological structure of the research process. This chapter explains and presents justification for all the methodological decisions. The chapter begins with philosophical discussion regarding the perception and beliefs of researcher about research phenomenon and then continues to explain and justify research approach. The following section focuses on research methods. Furthermore, the next step in research process is to choose research strategy followed by research design in which choices regarding data collection methods, sampling procedures, and data analysis techniques are discussed. In addition, the chapter also presents discussion of research ethics. I was born and raised in Sudan and moved to the United Kingdom at 38. Therefore, I speak English very well and can be classified as a sequential bilingual. I have been surrounded by teachers since I was very young and who I can refer to as “father” and “uncle”. The figure of the father especially, a charismatic and influent professor of Arabic language and literature played a crucial role in the development and maturation of this interest. Right since my early years in the UK, I have been volunteering in Arabic schools. This commitment, lasted for about eight years, gave me the appropriate confidence and wisdom to pursue an actual career in teaching. It was during this time that I started to nourish a particular interest in bilingualism and in all its features and peculiarities.

The Researcher’s Role

My role in the school is mainly involved in the teaching of Arabic language to primary and secondary school students. I started to work in Arabic school in 2016. Most of the schools are supplementary school where I normally work on weekends. I have been living around this area for more than ten years, so I had a chance to establish a strong relationship with my students and their families. I employed different techniques, methods and strategies depending on the students’ age group. Children aged 5 to 7 are usually and mainly taught through story-telling activities. Educator Kieran Egan described this method in 1986 as an ‘alternative approach to planning teaching’. According to this author and my experience, this method offers a way to look at conventional lessons as good stories to listen to or tell rather than to a block of information to learn meticulously. Children tend to be highly engaged to stories and the concept of story-telling itself is usually universally accepted. My vast experience in this regard brought to light how pitch and intonation play a crucial role to catch and maintain the attention span among children. These also help enhance imagination processes, essential for the strong and healthy development of mental cognition. I employ picture and poster description as a teaching strategy as I believes in the powerful effect of visual stimuli in facilitating information convey. Pictures largely support traditional teaching strategies. Majority of students, regardless of cultural origins or language barrier, are able to understand a picture. Pictures may help enhance vocabulary, literacy, reading comprehension and language skills, especially if in conjunction with writing or speaking activities (Mills, 2018). The bright colours and the funny shapes used to make pictures and posters can be attractive to young children and this may definitely help keep up their focus on the activity in hand. Games also represent one of my most selected choices from the researcher. Many games are available for teachers to employ such as concentration, math and human bodies’ games. Nevertheless, I am also interested in finding new games that often include balls, dolls, flashcards, and last, but not least, hide and seek. The Musical Chair game is one of the most largely employed in the classroom. Games are proven to enable children to have control over their emotions and behaviour, teaching them the concept of self-regulations (Howes, 2018). We know that children can engage best with a musical activity if it is sung "live" (Church, 2018). I find that morality and good attitude can be taught through songs called ‘nashid’ (meaning ‘song coming with a message’). This method would give the pupils the opportunity to improve their vocabulary while also acting on their social behaviour.

Drawing also is a part of children’ activities and it can improve their skills and knowledge of learn. Drawing would benefit children in several ways such as improved memory, communication and problem solving skills, stress relief and release of hidden emotions as well as increase of emotional intelligence (Moussavi, 2016). Whereas 9 to 14 year olds are generally stimulated by visual tools so the researcher normally uses videos, TV programmes and power point presentations activities followed by open discussion and opinion exchange to improve their critical thinking.

Ethical Considerations

Ethical values and principles are critical for social researchers, particularly in case of children as participants in the study. There are various ethical principles that are commonly applied in social research processes. A Voluntary Consent Form (available in the Appendix section) was given to the participants and their families. In this form, it was discussed the possibility for the parents to raise complaints during the study. The form also mentions a section on the Duty of Care of the Participants. Furthermore, it was explained that there are no academic benefits for the children due to participation and parents were allowed to have their children quit from research at any point of time without any obligations towards the researcher or organisation, should they feel it necessary. The most important aspect mentioned in the aforementioned form is, with no doubt, data protection. As the participants are all under the age of 18, it was clarified that no information of any kind will be disclosed at any time without the explicit consent of the parents.

Research Epistemology

Epistemological discussion shows the perspective and belief of researcher regarding how to gain acceptable knowledge. In social research community, there are two major epistemological streams of thoughts. On the one hand, the positivist school believes that social researchers, in order to gain acceptable knowledge, must apply methods and ethos of natural sciences. An objective view of social phenomena is therefore important. In contrast, the interpretivist’s school of thought posits that methods and ethos of natural sciences are not applicable in social phenomena and has a subjective view or perspective of phenomena under consideration (Bryman & Bell, 2015). Since the phenomenon under consideration of this study is Arabic language in bilingual young children, therefore the researcher believes that an interpretivist’s perspective with inductive reasoning is suitable to gain acceptable knowledge in this research. The reason to choose interpretivism is the fact that Arabic language and its usage as well as learning of Arabic in the UK for children is a subjective phenomenon and the researcher believes that objective perspective is not applicable. The rationales for children to speak English and the challenges they face in current environment are diverse and unique for each individual and therefore a qualitative perspective is most suitable. Social research works are broadly categorised as deductive or inductive approach based research. In the deductive approach, researchers typically start with identifying an existing theory that is widely applicable in general circumstances and then continue to develop hypotheses within specific circumstances so that they can test whether selected theory is applicable or not. This requires collection and analysis of quantifiable data (Clarke & Charmaz, 2014). In contrast, the inductive reasoning-based approaches require researchers to gather data from specific circumstances and then identify pattern and commonalities. These patterns are then reported to form basis for a theory that can be generalised and then applied in broader circumstances. The inductive reasoning is typically based on the aforementioned interpretivism epistemological position and requires researcher to collect qualitative data (Creswell & Clark, 2011). The aim is to collect data from a sample group of children and then make generalizable conclusions that are applicable on other similar settings. Specific investigations were carried out (e.g. which language was spoken with which person such as grandparents, friends, parents or classmates) in order to gather a bit of their linguistic background. However, due to limited sample size the researcher of this study has not developed a theory which is considered to be a limitation.

Research Methods

There are three types of research methods, namely, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. The quantitative methods based research processes collect quantifiable data and uses relevant data analysis techniques to generate results. The main benefit of quantitative methods is that they are objective and bias free and thus enhance reliability and validity of the research process. However, the main limitation in quantitative methods is that they lack the ability to provide rich data regarding feelings, experiences, and opinions of people (De Vaus, 2013). Quantitative methods are generally paired with positivism epistemology and are used in deductive reasoning-based research processes. Qualitative methods, on the other hand, allow researchers to gather qualitative data and use relevant data analysis techniques to generate results and achieve aims and objectives of the study. The main benefit of qualitative data is that they enable researcher to gather sufficient and rich data to explore feelings and experiences of people (Denscombe, 2014). However, the main limitation in the qualitative methods is that the results are based on interpretations of researcher about data and therefore they are vulnerable to personal bias. Thus, the reliability and validity of qualitative methods is considered to be relatively lower than quantitative methods. Mixed methods are simply the hybrid of the two and therefore researchers have to collect both types of data (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). The main benefit of mixed methods is that they overcome the weaknesses and short-comings of mono-methods while exploiting benefits of both. Quantitative and qualitative data are triangulated to achieve higher reliability and validity in the results and conclusions drawn through research process. The main limitation in mixed methods is that they are relatively more time consuming and costly as compared to mono-methods (Bernard & Bernard, 2012). This study has adopted a qualitative design. The main reason to choose qualitative design is the fact that experiences and feelings of participants in the study are critical for the aims and objectives of the study. This research is deemed too small for a quantitative research but it would be suitable for qualitative analysis. The mixed method was rejected because it would increase the amount of work and increase complications. In addition, the results are compared with general literature in order to increase objectivity and critical analysis of data.

My Research Strategy

There is a wide variety of research strategy which include action research, survey research, and ethnographic studies, among others. Each of these strategies have their own pros and cons. For example, the main benefit of survey research is that it is considered to be more time and cost efficient as compared to other strategies such ethnographic strategy. However, the main limitation in survey research is that it is typically based on data collected at one point of time and therefore the results have relatively short time validity (Babbie, 2015). In ethnographic strategy, the researcher is required to become a part of target population and then gather data using direct observations to understand the research phenomena. The main benefit of ethnographic studies is that they enable researcher to gather in-depth and rich data from target population. The main limitation in ethnographic study is that it more time consuming, however, the time validity of ethnographic studies is higher than other strategies such as survey strategy (Brinkmann, 2014). This study chose ethnographic strategy because I have sufficient knowledge and experiences as well as strong community ties in the target population. The relationship I have established with the participants is a strong one. I knew the actual families as they all belong to the same community. We indeed spend plenty of time together, sharing the most important events and festivities (such as Ramadan and Eid), special occasions (e.g. wedding and baby showers) and even fundraising programmes for charity. It may be argued that the close relationship between the participants and myself may impact negatively on the actual experiment, with the risk to fall into the possibility of biased questions; it is paramount to underline that the members were motivated to answer honestly and spontaneously without feeling somehow influenced by their personal interrelationship. In fact, the previously established friendship made it possible for the little participants to feel confident and completely at ease during the interviewing phase, with minimal to no discomfort.

Research Design

The research design can be classified as the actual research plan or action plan. The research design has three main elements, namely sampling, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques (Garner & Scott, 2013). The following section present detailed discussion of each of these elements.

Sampling

Sampling techniques are classified into probability and non-probability sampling techniques. The probability sampling techniques ensure that all members of the target population have equal chances to participate in the study. The probability of all participants to be recruited in the sample is equal (Gill et al., 2010). There are various probability sampling techniques such as random sampling, stratified sampling, etc. In contrast to probability sampling, non-probability sampling techniques do not require researcher to ensure equal probability for target population instead researchers are able to choose participants on the basis of convenience and ease of accessibility (Matthews & Ross, 2014). This study chose non-probability sampling technique due to ease of accessibility and convenience for data collection. Since I am a teacher working in the organisations where participants are studying, it was convenient for me to recruit participants in the nearest vicinity and as per convenience of accessibility. The people selected were students I usual teach and who were born in the UK. There are five participants in this study namely, Hassan Ali, Imam Mohammed, Karima Saeed, Tsneem Karim and Noor Gasim. The names are pseudonyms selected by the researcher to maintain confidentiality and anonymity. The ages of children are 12, 11, 14, 14 and 11 years old respectively. These specific members were chosen because of their commitment to Arabic learning while they are living in a non-Arabic setting where English is major language for communication. The parents were explained the aims and objectives of the study and also asked to sign an informed consent of the study but were not directly involved in the data collection methods. Yet, it is essential to acknowledge and appreciate the significant efforts contributed by the parents during the research process in leading and guiding sample participants. The families of all children involved have different levels of socio-economic status and education. The following table highlights some details collected about both the students and their families:

These are important factors because these factors have impact on the amount, extent and quality of the exposure of children to the language. These factors contribute towards the gaps and discrepancies between the language spoken in Arabic countries and the one used by the kids in the UK.

Data Collection Methods

This piece of research is mainly based on the semi-structured interviews and questionnaires presented to the participants. Although knowing the students fairly well within the community, for the purpose of this research, I met the students six different times, each session lasting approximately 45 minutes. The meeting were held between June and October 2018 at school and home settings. Five sessions took place at the students’ home, four of which on Saturday afternoons while the other one on a Sunday evening. The sixth meeting was at the Arabic school on a Saturday morning. The main benefit of using individual interviews is that they provide absolute confidentiality and anonymity as compared to other methods such as focus groups (Punch, 2013). Furthermore, individual interviews were more comfortable for both of us (the pupils and I) as they are more easily manageable as compared to focus groups in which there are multiple participants at the same time. Semi-structured interviews were chosen because they have sufficient flexibility to make follow up questions as compared to structured questionnaires while they also allow researcher to keep focus on research phenomenon (Rubin & Babbie, 2016). All the interviews were conducted in English as these were recorded for the purpose of this dissertation writing and because it was the strongest language of the participants. The transcripts from all the recorded audiotapes have been collected by myself and accurately stored separately to help with the following analysis. These were made available for the reader in the analysis session of this dissertation Furthermore, I also conducted questionnaires which can also be categorised as structured interviews. The main benefit of structured questionnaires was that they were more time efficient and enabled me to gather large amount of data in relatively less time. These sets of questions allowed me to control the focus of the answers specifically to the aims and objectives and gather most relevant data (Saunders et al., 2012). Open-ended questions were developed in the questionnaires. It is also important to mention that structured questionnaires also allow me to find commonalities and patterns. Open-ended questions are extremely important to obtain substantial evidence and be able to record comprehensive and exhaustive information (Creswell & Garrett, 2008). The vast majority of my questions to the participants were open-ended. Nevertheless, some questions had to be presented in a more closed fashion, e.g. which language do your parents speak with you? Although close-ended questions typically tend to be peculiar of quantitative studies (ibid. p. 326), the approach employed for this research led to a rather qualitative type of study as it has been reporting the voices of the participants’ personal experiences which have been contextualised in specific settings (ibid., p. 329).

Data Analysis Techniques

This qualitative study collected information through interviews, life stories and observations in the form of recordings and questionnaires. The field text to be studied and analysed, must first be processed. This stage is characterised by the simplification, summary, selection, ordering and classification of the qualitative data to make them comprehensible and manageable in such a way that they can be susceptible to be analysed. The processing of qualitative information as proposed by Miles & Huberman (1984) and Creswell & Clark (2011) is the stage of data reduction and disposition/ transformation. This research was kept simple and easy to understand, characterised by unambiguous short questions and relatively brief meetings. Data were safely stored in electronic devices. The following stage is the interpretation one. It is the conceptual and explanatory statements of the qualitative data. They are theoretical statements because they offer a conceptual construction in an integral way of the phenomenon of study, for it is based on the bibliographic review and the most significant theories that the author considers to unravel the data (Creswell & Clark, 2011). They are explanatory statements because they allow us to understand the nature of the data. The goal of science is the elaboration of conceptual and explanatory statements, is to make interpretation. Qualitative interpretation is a process that consists in moving from cases examined meticulously to generalisation (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). The generalisation emerges from case to case, successively, until the theoretical statements give an account of all the situations of the object of study. For the purpose of this research, I interpreted the collected data after every individual session. Sometimes, during the interpretation phase, additional questions came to my mind that would provide me with more details. I would then ask these in the following meeting.

CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND FINDINGS

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the results obtained from the evaluation of the data collected from regular interviews and questionnaires given to five young Arabic learners in a community Arabic class in South Wales. The final results will be thoroughly analysed and discussed. In order to help the readers understand the figures collected from the present study, the findings have been organised and arrange in different diagrams including pie and bar charts, explaining data in the form of percentages. For this purpose, the following questions have been formulated and used as a guide for this research:

What are young learners’ feeling and attitudes towards learning Arabic?

What factors influence their understanding of Arabic?

What are the students’ attitudes to the techniques and methods introduced and how can teaching be improved?

What beneficial outcomes can Arabic bring to these children?

Finding from the interview

Research Question One: What are young learners’ feeling and attitudes towards learning Arabic?

How Learners feel about speaking in Arabic

Different respondents have different views on how they feel when they speak in Arabic all of which are positive. Iman says, speaking the language of her religion is a feeling they can compare to no other. She feels really good because she is able to speak the language that the Prophet spoke and they are further capable of reading and understanding the Holy Book. Another respondent, Kareema says generally feels happy about speaking in Arabic mainly because she considers it her native language. She appears to feel very proud whenever she sees other people speaking in Arabic and once they need assistance, she approaches them and speaks Arabic while offering help. Communication is a key factor for Kareema and through this, she practices on a daily basis. Moreover, Hassan summarises his feelings about speaking Arabic by saying that, he feels comfortable and also finds it fun speaking the language. Nevertheless, Tsneem says that, she is really happy about speaking Arabic because now she can communicate with their family and friends more easily. Further Arabic is useful when speaking to people who don’t understand English so always can speak to them in Arabic and for those who are not familiar with Arabic, they can always speak to them in English. Noor feels happy to speak Arabic especially because she can communicate with Arabic people who joined the community but cannot fully express themselves in English. Practising at the Arabic school seems to be the strategy adopted by this student. Overall, the participants of this research stated that they enjoy speaking Arabic with the other family members back in Yemen as they aim to keep the roots of the Arabic culture. In order to achieve this, the participants used some popular social networks like Facebook and Skype. All of these learners seem to find pride in speaking Arabic despite all agreeing about a generally lacking number of Arabic classes, only limited to maximum six hours weekly.

Ability to express oneself in Arabic

Kareema actually considers Arabic as her first language and as such, she is able to express herself perfectly in the language. When Tsneem considers a language to be their first language it means that, that it was the first language she learned while growing up - mother tongue. Three of the respondent’s (Iman, Noor and Hassan) abilities to express themselves are categorised as good. The three, to some extent are able to express themselves in Arabic and have even developed some affinity for it. Iman finds Arabic more emotion feeling especially when they are reading the Holy Book -Quran. All of these respondents were actually born in the UK and as a result, are observed to prefer English to either Somali or Arabic. Hassan says he prefers English over Somali because he was born in the United Kingdom so he`s a native to the nation. Noor is actually comfortable in speaking in both English and Arabic.

How is the experience of learning Arabic?

The respondents seem to have good experiences with learning Arabic. There is one respondent, Iman admits that learning Arabic is challenging but goes ahead to say that it is okay for them. She adds that learning Arabic helps her in reading the Holy Book-the Quran and he always feels calm whenever reading it. Furthermore, Kareema finds learning Arabic to be no different from learning other languages. When learning Arabic just like learning other languages, one gets to learn about new vocabularies and nouns. Iman summarises her experience with learning the Arabic language as a comfortable and fun experience. Hassan says the experience is the best because they now get to understand Arabic more, not only for religious purposes but also for personal growth and development. There is this respondent, Tsneem says that Arabic is their first language and as such views learning Arabic as easy, saying that being her first language, she surely can do a lot with it.

Research Question Two: What factors influence their understanding of Arabic?

The Learners Home Country

Somalia and Yemen were identified by the respondents to be their home countries with three of the five respondents coming from Yemen and two from Somali land. Arabic is widely spoken in Yemen where the language is predominant. In Yemen, Arabic is commonly and the language has clusters of varieties. This language is generally considered to be very conservative and has numerous classical features that are not to be found in most areas where Arabic is spoken (Peterson, 2016). The majority of Somali can speak Arabic as well or can at least understand it. Arabic is the one of the main idioms in Somalia and is majorly used in Islamic functions (Hassig et al., 2017).

Languages spoken by their parents when speaking to each other

Three out of the five (Tsneem, Kareema and Noor) respondents come from families whereby Arabic is the most commonly used language by their parents whenever they speak to one another. It is observed that a majority of these families originated from Yemen. Only parents to two of the respondents (Hassan and Iman) communicate to one another using Somali, and English being used in communications between spouses in only one of the families (specify). Generally, there is no family where Somali is the only sole language of communication. It is either mixed with Arabic or English. One of the respondents (Hassan) says that his parents uses either Somali or English when speaking to one another and use Somali mostly when speaking to him and sometimes English. Another learner (Iman) says that her parents mostly use Somali and Arabic when speaking to one another and speak to her using Somali, Arabic or English. Noor says that her parents speak to her in English and Arabic while speaking to one another using Arabic. In the home of another learner, only Arabic is used for purposes of communication.

Activities the pupils engage in after school

The activities that learners engage to after school determine their level of exposure (Pearce et al., 2014). And this is more especially to the Arabic language. Different learners have different after-school routines. However, attending prayers and watching television are the most common after-school activities. Iman said that after school, she usually read a book or just do her homework or even watch television until the Maghreb after which they pray and go to sleep. Hassan said that after school, he goes to their club if there are activity on that given day and in the event that, there are no club activities, he does his homework and watch television. Noor said that after school, she read and does her homework and sometimes go out to parties and other fun places like parks. Tsneem, after school, goes home and does her homework and helps her mum with house chores after which, she goes out with her friends and at other times, she is involved in community activities and events. Eventually, Kareema prays, revises, help her siblings and gets involved in local activities around his area. Those learners who get involved in activities that are religious and even watching television programmes in Arabic become more exposed to the language and this would go a long way in improving their mastering of the language. The activities children engage in after school tend to have a positive effect on the psycho-emotional competencies of a child. In the past, gains have been observed in terms of improved self-awareness, reduced negative behaviour, increased self-esteem, and increased self-security and reduced risk-taking behaviours (González Motos, 2016). These positive effects come about if the children engage in socio-emotional areas like academic learning programmes, sports and arts. The activities engaged in by the different participants in the study where observed to have a potential of increasing the exposure of a child to the Arabic language.

Commonly used language in communicating with relatives who do not live in the UK

Arabic is the most commonly used language by the respondents whenever they are speaking to their relatives who live outside the United Kingdom. Some of the reasons generated for using Arabic is because most of the relatives back in the home countries are not fluent in English or do not speak English completely. Hassan for instance, claims to use a wide variety of languages whenever speaking to other relatives because the relatives are spread out in different countries like France and Somalia. For this responded, he adapts to the language of the person whom they are speaking to. There is some instance whereby the respondent communicates to the relatives in English, Arabic and Somali and at times this is dependent on the language of the person they are speaking to.

Learners travelling to their parents’ home countries

Tsneem confesses that, they used to travel to Yemen some time back but are not able to do so currently with the on-going war there. Noor never stepped in his parents’ home country in her lifetime. She adds that, her mother, however, has plans of visiting the home country. Iman says that she has been to her father’s second country, Holland, and not Somalia.

Learners exposure to Arabic

Different Islamic activities and celebrations (Ramadhan and Eid) and community activities together with class attendance activities are the most common ways through which the participants to the study get exposed to the Arabic language. All the participants who were involved revealed that, they get exposed to Arabic through these two means. Television programmes are also a common way of exposure to the language as four of the five participants confessed to getting exposed to the language by watching television programmes. Only Hassan gets exposed to Arabic mainly through parent’s interactions. This one respondent attributes the mastering of the language by their parents to the exposure. The respondent’s mother was born in Djibouti and learned both French and Arabic while the father went to Arabic school.

Presence of contact between the learners and others countries including Yemen and Somalia

Of the five respondents, four of them (Hassan, Imam, Kareema, and Tsneem) have relatives living in countries outside the European Union. These relations have had an impact on the learner’s communication in some instances and no impact at all in other instances. Hassan says that, having relatives outside of the European Union doesn’t really change anything. For another respondent, Iman says speaking to these relatives helps her speaking. This respondent does not, however, think it helps her Arabic language because the relative they speak to does not understand English. Says that thanks to speaking to the relatives who speak in other countries frequently, makes their mastery of the Arabic language even better. This respondent speaks to his grandmother in America and uncle in France on a daily basis.

Analysis

Do age and gender have an impact on the learning process?

A wide range of factors that affect the acquisition of a language in general and acquisition of a second language exists. According to Ortega (2014), the age factor is relevant when determining the characteristics of the acquisition of mother tongue and second language or both. In general, the age factor is associated with the idea that the passage from child to adolescent and then to adult leads to a loss of ability to learn a second language because of brain maturation. In this study, the participants were only one boy, and the rest were girls, therefore this research infers that these sample is not suitable to conclude difference due to gender. Dörnyei (2014), concluded that gender probably interacts with the other variables such as learning strategies or cognitive styles and therefore may affect learning abilities but being either female or male would not impact on language abilities. In some societies, there may be different environment and exposure to language and education due to which statistically men or women may differ in language acquisition, but there is no evidence to support that gender may hinder or contribute towards language abilities. Different authors Such as McKay and Bokhorst-Heng (2017) have actually observed that the impact of attitude is so determining which leads to accept that this is the most important factor in the success of learning a second language together with learners’ talent to acquire a second language.

Research Question Three: What are students’ attitudes to the techniques and methods introduced and how can teaching be improved?

Suggestion for Teaching Arabic at an Academic Level as part of a School Programme

I gathered suggestions from participants regarding teaching Arabic as a part of school curriculum at the academic level as an optional subject and even as a compulsory subject. A number of interesting suggestions were identified. Considering the interviews results, the most important and common suggestion made by interviewees was to hire specialised teaching staff and provide adequate resources to educational institutions. Comparing the suggestions above, I found that similar suggestions have been presented by general literature in the case of Arabic in the UK and in other countries. It is important to note that these suggestions are equally important for the promotion of any language. According to Dawisha (2016), teaching of the Arabic language in the 21st century poses many challenges, for which it will be necessary to combine the efforts of institutions, universities and research centres and groups. Any change may be slow, but it is inevitable. Structures are being set up, and reversing is impossible (Dawisha, 2016). Rivers (2018), opined that the most pressing need is to train specialised teachers and provide reasonable resources such as funding and teaching materials. Within this context, the author further recommended that in order to carry out teacher training, it is essential to have a national linguistic policy that facilitates the necessary actions, as has happened in other countries. It is necessary to promote training courses for teachers currently in practice: the native teacher needs didactic training while the non-native require rigorous training to increase their linguistic competence. Finally, in England, Wahba & Taha (2014), suggested that a favourable linguistic policy will encourage applied research in this field. It would be essential to create a professional knowledge exchange platform as they have in other countries. As for the publications, the progress is vertiginous. There is a need to develop a grammar for the use of Arabic, which will become an essential instrument for any teacher and will facilitate the creation of materials.

Research Question Four: What beneficial outcomes can Arabic bring to these children?

How being able to speak in Arabic will be helpful in the future?

All the respondents involved strongly believe that good knowledge of the Arabic language will help them secure good jobs in the future. They also believe that a good grasp of Arabic will help them in their communications in the future. One of the respondents says that knowing the language will help them in getting a good job and the knowledge of a wide number of languages will actually make them better communicators. With such knowledge, he sees himself helping people from his community who immigrated from Arabic communities to the UK. Another respondent has ambitions of being a doctor when they grow up and they believe that Knowing Arabic will help them serve other Arab speakers in a better way. Another respondent wants to get a job and help visitors and immigrants from Arab speaking countries. Another respondent feels that knowing Arabic will help them get a job in the future and will also help improve the communication between them and their family members, other Arab speakers who originate from different countries and will also be helpful in the rest of their academic lives. Another one believes that knowing Arabic will put them in a better position to get jobs in the country their mother originated from. For one of the respondents learning Arabic will equip them will skills that will enable them to help other members of their society in the near future.

Beneficial Outcomes of Arabic Learning in the UK

The data analyses show that there are various benefits of learning Arabic as well as any other second language and it provides personal, social, cultural and economic advantages for bilinguals. In this respect, Karima said that learning Arabic has positive impacts on opportunities as an international professional. Knowing Arabic enables professionals to gain cultural knowledge on how to deal with people from different backgrounds and cultures. Most immigrants may find it easier to settle in different countries provided that they know the local language. What is quite encouraging is that most of the learners are actually enthusiastic about learning Arabic. With enthusiasm and a proper attitude, learning with no doubt becomes easier. Similar advantages have been presented by Kinzler (2016), who concluded that being bilingual or multilingual means much more than the simple fact of knowing two or more languages ​​since it entails a considerable number of possible personal, social, economic and even cognitive advantages. Currently, English is the dominant global language, but knowing how to communicate in languages ​​like Arabic also offers more advantages. Due to globalisation, knowing languages ​​opens a world of possibilities that do not exist for monolingual people (ibid.). An advanced knowledge of another language not only offers the opportunity to study or work in the country where that language is spoken but also betters the understand people and culture than simply travel to it. While a monolingual person can only communicate with those who speak their own language, the bilingual person does not have barriers and can establish more meaningful relationships with people from other countries or cultures (Goriot et al., 2016). Being bilingual is of special importance in families where more than one language is spoken because the father and mother have different mother tongues. Many of these parents may feel the need to talk with their son or daughter in their native language. It is in that language where they feel more comfortable communicating in compared to the use of foreign language. If there are also grandparents, uncles or cousins, who only speak one of the languages ​​that are used in that family, the bilingual boy or girl has the possibility of establishing a closer and deeper relationship with these relatives.” The results above are consistent with observations during the research process. I personally had the chance to interact with parents of students and gather evidence about the use of Arabic at home and among close family relatives. All parents felt pride in their children speaking their native language. An interesting feedback comes from Tsneem who confessed that knowing another language opens doors to cultures in which that language is spoken and to a broader cultural experience that can facilitate a better understanding and appreciation of their customs and ideas, as well as foster tolerance. This can not only happen through personal relationships with individuals belonging to those cultures but also through direct access to information in newspapers or the internet, watching movies or reading literature in its original version. The results above can be related to various researchers such as Gándara (2015), who argued that bilingualism can make a difference when choosing a job as employers often give preference to bilingual candidates. Knowing English in Arab and Asia is a key competitive advantage and increases the possibility of finding a job by 44% (Gándara, 2015). Zhao (2018), agrees with the previous author and concluded that English is the most valued language with 61.3%, followed by French with 11.3% and German with 10.7%.

Overall it can be noted that there is significant awareness of the benefits of learning second languages in general as well as awareness of the benefits of Arabic for young people in the UK. The British Council's Tony Calderbank posits that, the Arabic language should join other modern languages within the school curriculum of the UK. Calderbank believes that the knowledge of the Arabic language is necessary for the cultural and economic prosperity of the UK in the long-term. Acknowledging that the Arabic is one of the great languages in the world, with a large number of speakers, as many as 400 million people around the globe, Calderbank further argues that, Arabic has been used as communication language for several important contributions in the history of culture and science. Arabic has been made one of the official languages in the United Nations and is considered to be one of the ten most important languages for the bright future of the UK. A number of practical reasons have been presented that justify Arabic as a good option for the schools in the UK. For example, Arabic learners have higher chances to get a job in the security forces or diplomatic service, communications and media, banking and finance, and the oil and gas sectors among others. The Arabic speakers in the UK can contribute towards better understanding of a region which is volatile and complex, and its stability has significant resonance in the region of Western Europe because of the aftermaths of colonial adventurism of the British in the Arab world. This study has endeavoured to present and highlight various benefits of learning Arabic for the UK children in order to stress upon the need to develop Arabic as a daily subject in the UK education system (ibid, 2015).

Summary

Learning something new is only comparable to stacking blocks for a building. One can only go higher if they have learnt more. So as to increase student’s comprehension of different materials, teachers can work in a creative manner so that they are able to elicit background knowledge from their students on topics that are topical (Rivers, 2018). To achieve this, a teacher would simply need to sit down and prepare a “Know, Want to know, Learned” chart or simply just asking questions about a topic. All this will be aimed at increasing the comprehension of the learner of the Arabic language. There is a critical role which is played by teachers in the learning of languages. Far beyond just teaching children on how to read and write, they also help the children in better understanding of the language that is associated with the various school subject`s academic discourse. There has been an increasing need amongst students to understand the different structures in the Arabic language. What content teachers will need to do is to review content areas so that they are able to identify those grammar and vocabulary structures that students are not familiar with. Finally, parental support is always essential if success is to be witnessed in academics. To improve the participation of parents in the education of their students, teachers need to communicate to them in a more friendly and open manner and communication should also be frequent. When parents are well informed about the progress of their children, they are in a better position to support them (Musgrave, 2017).

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION

Introduction

The following passage summarises the findings of the present study. First of all, the factors influencing Arabic learning of aged 11 – 14 pupils living in Cardiff – and with Yemeni and Somali family background – have been analysed briefly with regard to the research findings. Secondly, some recommendations on how learners may be approached in the future for the learning and teaching of Arabic have been summarized taking inspiration from this research. Thirdly, a summary of my feelings about this experience during this study will be presented, including the personal and professional development that I achieved through this research. Eventually, a discussion on the dissemination of the research will be provided.

Factors influencing Arabic learning

The present project has tried to look into the experience of five young Arabic students with Somali and Yemeni origins immersed the British context as well as the factors that influence Arabic learning. The study revealed that students showed common attitudes and opinions according to their own experience. Generally speaking, all the participants in this study consider Arabic an important and interesting language which is worth being learned. Moreover, some of the participants think that Arabic help them understand deeply the Holy Quran and makes them feel like at home. Meanwhile, the students’ parents believe that using Arabic most of the time is a better way of improving the proficiency of those pupils who do not speak English very well. Also, the data collected revealed that most respondents are keen on learning Arabic as a second language as they may need to use it in their future careers. Regarding the students’ relationship with their family of origin, the research demonstrated that all the participants try to keep in contact with their relatives living outside the UK (e.g. through Facebook, Skype and phone calls).-(was not originally mentioned in lit rev and introduction) The participating students had different perceptions of Arabic’s level of difficulty. In respect of students’ attitudes toward the learning of this language, the main obstacles encountered were lack of many activities during lessons, the writing and pronunciation of some Arabic words, the limited number of people speaking Arabic in the UK and the reduced Arabic support at school. Some students tried to overcome these obstacles online, with the help of websites and blogs while others try to improve by taking part in celebrations and events. The results and discussion presented in previous chapter lead to several conclusions and inferences. With respect to factors that affect Arabic understanding, this study concludes that age is an important element. All of the participants, as stated at the beginning of the research, are aged 11-14 meaning that all of them are within their neural plasticity phase (Hoff, 2005). This allows individuals to acquire an unlimited repertoire of information, including languages, with minimal or no effort. Furthermore, this study also acknowledges that social class and ethnicity as well is a factor which has significant influence over the young Arabic learners. One of the participants in particular, Noor, demonstrated a better proficiency in the use of both written and spoken Arabic compared to the rest of the group. This may be a reflection of her parents’ social status, being both educated at higher level. It can also be due to her parental study skills and support alongside the rich provision of study material and books.

The results also present empirical evidence to conclude that the individual attitude of students for learning a second language is considered to be a relevant factor. It is important to assess a student’s attitude through an accurate observation. In fact, a vivid interest in the task involved would definitely help lead to better results, with little expenses in terms of energy and time. All the participants in this research have stated to enjoy speaking or reading Arabic as this would allow them to create a stronger bond with their relatives. At the present date, there is no consensus on whether attitude is innate or can be developed. Also, the mutability of attitude may depend on having the pre-existing knowledge of other languages as this would considerably facilitate the learning of a new one through the application of similar developed skills, knowledge, techniques, cognitive abilities and strategies of communication (Hammond, 2013). This study also concludes that students’ motivation towards language acquisition as well as towards teaching methods and techniques are also influencing factors. The underlying logic is simple that attitudes are based on motivations (Oxford, 2016). Through this research, it is possible to understand how all the participants were strongly motivated during their learning mainly for the purpose of being able to keep in touch with their family back home.

Recommendations

This study inspired a number of recommendations for parents of children to play an effective role in development of Arabic language skills in young learners in the UK. Following are some of personal observations which may be useful to enhance Arabic learning as I have learnt from this project. I appreciated that during this research, there is a difference between social and academic language. I learnt this while meeting the students both at school and outside. The development of the first informal interactions does not require much time, but the process of acquiring the academic language lasts much longer. Learning a language is a complex process that takes many years and the environment of the child plays an important role (Samovar et al., 2015). From this research, the very first recommendation I would recommend is talking to learners. As we know, the language used at home is correlated with the vocabulary that children acquire. The more they are spoken, using a varied and decontextualized vocabulary, and the more they are encouraged to speak and the better they will learn to express their thoughts and feelings. As a matter of fact, the students I interviewed expressed themselves with different language proficiencies. I would then recommend that parents talk with their children to motivate them to improve their vocabulary and promote good performance at school (Abalkhail & Allan, 2015). They may do this while interacting with them, for instance, helping with their homework or by telling stories which would encourage the students’ Arabic proficiency when talking about past and future events. In order to achieve this, I recommend that parent be motivated to read together with their children and this will be an excellent source for the development of language and communication skills. It helps them acquire a more varied and richer vocabulary because they learn words that are not often used in daily interactions between parents and children (Dewaele & Al-Saraj, 2015). From my own experience on this project, I believe that students may well benefit from being asked open questions. This encourages children to expand their knowledge and develop their language. Open ended questions are more appropriate than those that only require a yes or no answer, invite conversation and encouraged the students to give me more elaborate and complex answers. Therefore, I would suggest that parents engage a pleasant conversation with their children as well through the use of questions. Through my personal experience I realised the used of technological devices such as IPads and computers, has been useful when it comes to Arabic teaching. With this regard I think that television programs and DVDs, carefully selected, can serve as complements to the input and to stimulate the development of the language. Children like to see them and are a source to enrich the vocabulary. However, they are a passive medium and cannot substitute interaction with other speakers of the language (Alrashidi & Phan, 2015). More interesting, but also more difficult due to the lack of visual support, are audio books and CDs with songs and rhymes for children. There is also a lot of audio material accessible through the Internet, which can be an excellent source of language beyond the interaction at school or with people who speak the foreign language (Zarrinabadi, 2014).

I strongly believe that parents should give a great value to the Arabic language so that the children will take it seriously and with genuine interest. In this way, parents can positively influence the learning of the language (Abalkhail & Allan, 2015). One of the main recommendations that I would give to the students is to show interest in the culture of the country where the language is spoken, or even take classes of the foreign language. Travelling to the country of origin can also be a big opportunity to learn the language features and help with their retention. The attitude towards language is a very important factor for the motivation that children develop to learn a foreign language (Nydell, 2018).

Personal and professional development

This study has given me some insights into how subjective the experience of learning a second language in a different context can be. I appreciate that most of the interviewees are really committed in their Arabic learning process and seem to be successful students. Moreover, I acknowledge that every participant is different, taking into consideration their social, economic and academic status and learning how to be equal and impartial in front of each participant. I noticed how hands-on experiments can really be challenging and involving, conferring a stronger sense of responsibility if compared to merely descriptive researches.

Limitations of the study

The results of this research indicate that, unfortunately, the number of appointments arranged between the researcher and the participants may have not been sufficient to provide more detailed and secure conclusions. The limited time available and the many daily commitments from both the sides made the research a slightly difficult process. Furthermore, the lack of many activities and events promoting Arabic learning seems to have negatively impacted on the participants, who found it difficult to answer some of the questions they were presented with, also failing to provide more interesting facts or share experiences that would be otherwise worth analysing (e.g. Some of the participants not having ever travelled to their country of origin).

Dissemination of the study

I would like to divulgate the findings obtained from this study as a method to contribute to other researchers’ studies. Since I believe that they may well benefit from this work, my plan is to make use of online university platforms and local authorities and institutions to make it available for both linguists and anyone nourishing an interest in this field. In this respect, the Internet and social networks also plays a crucial role as the findings of this study can be shared with other teachers of foreign languages whose feedback may be precious. I may share these findings in conferences, seminars or at academic meetings, with other pioneers of the field. Among my plans is to provide a dissemination activity through a short presentation that I would like to discuss with the parents. The presentation – in the form of a Power Point work – will summarise the aims, targets and outcomes of this research and will give the opportunity to raise questions, concerns and personal observations among the participants. This will also give the chance to share personal experiences and ideas. In conjunction with this idea, a hand-out can be made and given out to parents, students and the general public in schools, universities and other academic settings and events (e.g. seminars and conferences).

Summary and suggestions for further research

There seem to be enough evidence to support and encourage the teaching of the Arabic language in the academic institutions of the United Kingdom. Future arrangements from the British government should, therefore, be taken into consideration. The primary data analyses also lead to the conclusion that in order to improve Arabic teaching and promotion of Arabic as a regular subject in the UK education system, the first and foremost step is to develop an adequate policy and specific plan. One of the most important aspects in the policy is to ensure that there is specialised staff who has sufficient skills in Arabic and sufficient teaching skills. There is also a need to provide adequate resources to promote Arabic as a secondary language in the UK education system and to promote it like other languages such as French. Finally, it is important to mention that the findings in previous chapter and conclusions drawn in previous section are found to have high level of consistency with past studies. A number of researchers have drawn similar conclusions and findings and these findings have been discussed. Therefore, this study provides high quality ethnographic based research evidence to stress upon the need to promote Arabic as a subject in the UK schools. Although the tools used in this study to gather the data from the students were sufficient, the researcher suggests that more needs to be analysed about how Arabic may improve learners’ skills and what benefits, if any, may bring to someone’s professional career and job. This research focused on students’ Arabic learning in the British contexts but it neglected the aforementioned topics. The researcher suggests that further research be carried out in this regard, as this is thought to be an important aspect completely embracing all the features of the language. Finally, it is hoped that future studies will cover and compensate for the faults and shortcomings of this research.