Language repertoires and attitudes of students in the United Arab Emirates

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Jakob Leimgruber; Professor Dr. Peter Siemund
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 418465998

The following proposal investigates the multilingual repertoires and language attitudes of individuals living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a constitutional federation of seven sovereign emirates. The sociolinguistic status quo of the UAE is largely uncharted territory and so far, little sociolinguistic research has been done in that area. All previously conducted sociolinguistic studies have focused either on the language use of specific genders or on language preferences of particular professionals. Besides, the majority of these studies have centered on Emirati nationals to the neglect of the language practices of the majority non-citizen population of the UAE. Although a few studies have attempted to describe the features of English as spoken in the UAE, there remains a shortage of studies on the current linguistic ecology to investigate the ongoing usages of and attitudes towards not only Arabic (the official language) and English (the de facto lingua franca), but also all languages used by different communities in the UAE. Accordingly, most previous studies call for a much more comprehensive enquiry to better understand the linguistic situation in the UAE and more specifically the Sharjah/Dubai area. The purpose of this project is to provide a first documentation of the sociolinguistic profile of the greater Sharjah/Dubai area, a globalized conurbation populated largely by highly transient migrants. For a representative sample of the UAE, we draw our data from the student population of the American University of Sharjah (AUS) which is made up of students from diverse language and ethnic backgrounds and therefore, offers a suitable setting to study the use and attitudes towards different languages and English as a global language. The study aims to answer (i) what the language repertoires of students at AUS are, and (ii) to what extent the usage of English or the attitudes towards English and other languages present in this area differ from the situation that we find in other global English-speaking cities (e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong). The data will be elicited with the help of a comprehensive online questionnaire along with a semi-structured interview. Our study will offer important insights into the multilingual texture of the current student generation in the UAE, which also provides crucial information for language policy makers within the university as well as in the UAE. Given that the language constellations and developments in the United Arab Emirates differ from other English-using globalized cities like Singapore and Hong Kong, we expect the language repertoires, usage and attitudes of our participants to be significantly different and more complex. Hence, our study will offer exemplification for the current discussion of new models of World Englishes, especially concerning English use in second and/or foreign language contexts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Arab Emirates
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Ahmad Al-Issa, Ph.D.