Arabic teacher identity and critical language awareness in the classroom

Few if any studies have examined the experiential, professional, and attitudinal predispositions that Arabic teachers hold towards Arabic dialects and integrated teaching. For example, native speaking teachers must negotiate the heteroglossia of Arabic while speaking their own dialects and interacting with their heritage and non-native students. How do they do this? And are different teachers, and perhaps non-native versus native teachers, affected differently when they negotiate MSA versus the dialects in their teaching?

This study, one recipient of QFI's Call for Research on Arabic as a Global Language, will investigate Arabic teacher professional identities and their critical language awareness of Arabic. The goal is to understand key differences and similarities between native and non-native speaking teachers of Arabic in the United States in these two areas, and to evaluate how such differences and similarities potentially modulate the manner by which teachers with different biographic and professional backgrounds envision the teaching of Arabic as a global language. Ultimately, the findings will lead to modules for professional development that K-12 Arabic teachers can adopt to teach the Arabic language in optimal, integrated ways that capitalize on the strengths and challenges of native and non-native teacher identities and on the motivations their diverse native/heritage and non-native school-age students bring to the classroom.