Articles

A Critical Review of Multilingual and Multidialectal Approaches to Heritage and L2 Arabic Instruction

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Abstract

While Arabic instruction has traditionally focused heavily - and often exclusively - on the acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) (Ryding, 2006), scholars and practitioners have become increasingly critical of instructional approaches that ignore colloquial dialects of Arabic, and have therefore proposed an integrated approach to Arabic instruction (Younes, 1990). Such an approach interrogates and prompts a reflection on different notions and practices related to multilingualism, and how these practices may be relevant for heritage language (HL) and second language (L2) learners. This article thus offers a comprehensive and critical review of research on multilingual/-dialectal approaches to Arabic instruction. Focusing primarily on HL/L2 instruction in the United States, this review is premised by a brief history of research and practices in HL and L2 Arabic instruction. I then discuss multilingualism and multidialectalism as it pertains to Arabic instruction, as well as how these notions provide a lens for reevaluating ideas about diglossia, monolingual ideologies, and exclusive MSA instruction. This also involves an examination of specific multilingual practices in the language classroom, including code-switching and translanguaging. I conclude with a discussion of the implications that current research has for classroom practices, as well as a note about areas of investigation that merit further attention.

Keywords: Arabic language instruction, Arabic as a second language, multilingualism, multidialectalism

How to Cite:

Ali, F., (2024) “A Critical Review of Multilingual and Multidialectal Approaches to Heritage and L2 Arabic Instruction”, Critical Multilingualism Studies 11(1), 8-25.