Loss of Arabic in the UAE: Is Bilingual Education the Solution?

Abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is threatened by an identity-loss, due a lack of balance between Arabic and English education in the country hence, the National Federal Council has proposed a draft for a monolingual Arabic shift in all public schools and universities. This paper is an attempt to demonstrate that such a shift could be irrational when it comes to UAE context. Two-way bilingualism is an alternative that could help preserve UAE’s identity while taking into consideration UAE’s multicultural context and keeping the country up breast with the rest of the world. The present study shows how bilingual education can be physically implemented in UAE using a two way-bilingual program. Theoretical framework involving inter-emotionality and cultural frame switching is used to prove that languages are related to identities. The paper uses a variety of secondary sources such as journal and newspaper articles, chapters from books, websites and dissertations which support both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the study. Recommendations suggest that implementing bilingual education in UAE schools would help preserve Arabic, and potentially make speakers of Arabic believe in their mother tongue.