Critical Extension of World Englishes to World Arabics

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of a critical view of variation in English on developing a critical view of variation in Arabic among Bahraini trainee teachers. The main focus was to clarify whether or not these critical views of world Englishes transfer to and develop critical views of Arabic as a first language. Bahraini trainee teachers, from the English specialization, participated in focus group discussions and completed an authors-developed survey. Interestingly, the results revealed positive criticality of Arabic as a consequence of training in world Englishes. Most noticeably, participants showed a critical view towards identity as speakers of a Bahraini variety, and developed new understanding of variety in the Arabic language from exposure to variety in English. The results suggest important implications for the diglossic situation in Arabic, the codification of varieties in Arabic, the balance between Arabic and English, bilingualism, and for language choices made in the classroom and school.