The use of English and linguistic hybridity among Emirati millennials (original) (raw)

For Emirati millennials, multilingualism is both typical and expected. Although Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the official language of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Emiratis mainly use Khaleeji (Gulf Arabic) dialects at home. English is the lingua franca and common medium of instruction with approximately 100 other languages also being spoken in the nation. While top-down language policies overtly favor English and MSA, which appear on signage, in educational contexts, and online as two 'pure' languages placed side-by-side, language 'on the ground' is considerably more complex than as 'planned'. This paper explores the language ideologies and language use of 100 Emirati university students through mixed-method questionnaires and classroom observations recorded in researcher journals. Analysis of the data revealed creative translanguaging practices. It is argued that such grassroots hybridity could act as a counterdiscourse to rigid 'English only' expectations in English-medium universities and policies advocating 'pure and separate' language use. 1 INTRODUCTION Sitting in a café in downtown Abu Dhabi or Dubai, one is surrounded by diversity. Not only do people's appearances vary dramatically from Emiratis in the distinctive national dress of black abayas and white kandoras, to expatriates dressed in jeans and T-shirts, but the language one hears is an equally vibrant mix. Emiratis' Arabic is almost always peppered with English words. Filipinos' Tagalog and English is inevitably interspersed with expressions from the local Khaleeji dialect, such as yalla ('come on') or shuu? ('what?'). British, Russian, and Lebanese expatriate friends might converse together in English, but when the Russian answers her phone she switches to her native tongue. The Lebanese woman dips in and out of French, Arabic, and English depending on social interactions. The ways in which such linguistic diversity and hybridity could be exemplified in the UAE's superdiverse cities are inexhaustible. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.