Abstract
In this chapter, we report on the current situation of emergent literacy and language in the emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (hereafter, UAE). In 2010, Abu Dhabi Education Council (hereafter, ADEC) announced a 10-year strategic plan aimed at improving the quality of education in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. A key feature of this plan is what is referred to as the “New School Model” which entails bilingual education (Arabic and English) from kindergarten through the years of compulsory schooling.This change has brought with it many intended and unintended consequences. The purpose of the present chapter is to examine issues relating to young children’s emergent literacy, including bilingualism, diglossia, and writing in the context of the UAE under the current New School Model. Although there is very little literature on emergent literacy and language development in the UAE, we looked carefully into these important issues and their implications in light of the existing literature in both the UAE and internationally, and also in relation to the rapid societal changes being experienced in the UAE.Recommendations are made for all concerned parties; policy makers, strategic planners, caregivers and families so that reform can bring the optimal development of bilingualism for the young Emirati children while retaining their national identity and culture.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abu-Rabia, S. (2000). Effects of exposure to literary Arabic on reading comprehension in diglossic situation. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 14, 147–157.
Abu-Rabia, S. (2006). The role of morphology and short vowelization in reading Arabic among normal and dyslexic readers in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 36, 89–106.
Abu-Rabia, S., & Siegel, L. S. (2003). Reading skills in three orthographies: The case of trilingual Arabic–Hebrew–English speaking Arab children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 16, 611–634.
Adams, M. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge: MIT Press.
ADEC (2009). Abu Dhabi Education Council announces 10-Year strategic plan. http://www.abudhabi.ae/egovPoolPortal_WAR/appmanager/ADeGP/Citizen?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=p_citizen_homepage_hidenav&did=139594&lang=en. Accessed on 26 July 2009.
Al Nashef, H. (1996). Preparing the child to read and write [in Arabic].Cairo, Egypt: Dar Al Fikr Al Arabi.
Anderson, R. C., Hiebert, E., Scott, J. A., & Wilkenson, J. A. (1985). Becoming a nation of readers. Washington, DC: National Institute of Education.
Anderson, N. B., & Shames, G. H. (2006). Human communication disorders (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Ayari, S. (1996). Diglossia and illiteracy in the Arab World. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 9, 243–252.
Baker, L. (2003). The role of parents in motivating struggling readers. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19, 87–106.
Baker, L., & Brown, A. I. (1984). Metacognition and reading. In P. D. Pearson, M. Kamil, R. Barr, & P. Moesenthal (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 353–394). New York: Longman.
Begg, J. A., & Clay, M. M. (1968). A note on teaching a preschooler to read: Some problems of evaluation. New Zealand Journal of Evaluation Studies, 3(2), 171–174.
Butler, D., & Clay, M. M. (1979). Reading begins at home. London: Heinemann Educational Books.
Catts, H. W., & Kamhi, A. (2005). Causes of reading disabilities. In H. W. Catts & A. G. Kamhi (Eds.), Language and reading disabilities (pp. 94–126). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Chall, J. S. (1983). Stages of reading development. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Chen, X., Anderson, R. C., Li, W., Hao, M., Wu, X., & Shu, H. (2004). Phonological awareness of bilingual and monolingual Chinese children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 142–151.
Cisero, C. A., & Royer, J. M. (1995). The development and cross-language transfer of phonological awareness. New York: Longman.
Clay, M. M. (1966). Emergent reading behaviour. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Clay, M. M. (1975). What did I write? Auckland: Heineman.
Clay, M. M. (1991). Becoming literate: The construction of inner control. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Cummins, J. (1978a). Bilingualism and the development of metalinguistic awareness. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 9, 131–149.
Cummins, J. (1978b). Metalinguistic development of children in bilingual education programs: Data from Irish and Canadian (Ukrainian-English) programs. In M. Paradis (Ed.), Aspects of bilingualism (pp. 127–138). Columbia: Hornbeam Press.
Cummins, J. (1981). Age on arrival and immigrant second language learning in Canada: A reassessment. Applied Linguistics, 2, 132–149.
Cummins, J. (1984). Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Cummins, J. (1991). Interdependence of first and second language proficiency in bilingual children. In E. Bialystock (Ed.), Language processing in bilingual children (pp. 70–89). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cummins, J. (1994). The acquisition of English as a second language, In K. Spangenberg-Urbschat and R. H. Pritchard (Eds.), Kids come in all languages: Reading instruction for ESL students (pp. 36–62). Delaware: International Reading Association.
Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Cummins, J. (2004). Language and literacy in bilingual children. Journal of Child Language, 31, 424–429.
Cummins, J., & Gulutsan, M. (1974). Bilingual education and cognition. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 20, 259–269.
Cummins, J., & Mulcahy, R. (1978). Orientation to language in Ukrainian-English bilinguals. Child Development, 49, 479–482.
Cunningham J. W. (2000). How will literacy be defined in the new millennium? Reading Research Quarterly, 3, 64–72.
DaFontoura H. A., & Siegel, L. S. (1995). Reading, syntactic and working memory skills of bilingual, Portuguese-English Canadian children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 7, 139–153.
Diaz, R. M. (1983). Thought and two languages: The impact of bilingualism on cognitive development. In E. W. Gordon (Ed.), Review of research in education (Vol. 10). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Dolson, D. (1985). The effects of Spanish home language use on the scholastic performance of Hispanic pupils. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 6, 135–156.
Feitelson, D., Goldstein, Z., Iraqi, J., & Share, D. L. (1993). Effects of listening to story reading on aspects of literacy acquisition in a diglossic situation. Reading Research Quarterly, 28, 71–79.
Ferguson, C. A. (1959). Diglossia. Word, 14, 47–56.
Fitzgerald, J. (1995). English-as-a-second-language learners’ cognitive reading processes: A review of research in the United States. Review of Educational Research, 65, 145–190.
Geva, E., Wade-Woolley, L., Shany, M. (1993). The concurrent development of spelling and decoding in 2 different orthographies. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25, 383–406.
Hall, S. L., & Moats, L. C. (1999). Straight talk about reading: How parents can make a difference during the early years. Chicago: Contemporary Books.
Hambly, C., & Riddle, L. (2002, April). Phonological awareness training for school-age children. Paper presented at the annual convention of the New York State Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Rochester.
Harris, T. L., & Hodges, R. E. (1981). A dictionary of reading and related terms. Newark: International Reading Association.
Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1997). Language development. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole.
Ho, C. S. H., & Fong, K. M. (2005). Do Chinese dyslexic children have difficulties learning English as a second language? Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 34, 603–618.
Igoa, C. (1995). The inner world of the immigrant child. Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Maamouri, M. (1998). Language education and human development: Arabic diglossia and its impacton the quality of education in the Arab region. Discussion paper prepared for The World Bank, The Mediterranean Development Forum.
Marsh, H. W., Hau, K. T., & Kong, C. K. (2002). Multilevel causal ordering of academic self-concept and achievement: Influence of language of instruction (English compared with Chinese) for Hong Kong students. American Educational Research Journal, 39, 727–763.
McCarty, T. L., & Watahomigie, L. J. (1998). Language and literacy in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. In B. Perez (Ed.), Sociocultural contexts of language and literacy. Mahwa: Earlbaum.
Momani, I., Ihmeideh, F., & Momani, M. (2008). Teachers’ views of the effectiveness of United Arab Emirates kindergarten curriculum, instructional strategies, and assessment procedures. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23, 239–252.
Naremore, R. C. (2001). Narrative frameworks and early literacy. Seminar presented for Rochester Hearing and Speech Center and Nazareth College, Rochester, NY.
Nieto, S. (1995). Affirming diversity (2nd ed.). White Plains: Longman.
Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Educational psychology. New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Owens, R. E. (1996). Language development: An introduction (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Owens, R. E. (2001). Language development: An introduction (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Owens, R. E. (2006). Development of communication, language, and speech. In N. Anderson & G. Shames (Eds.), Human communication disorders (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Owens, R. E., Metz, D. E., & Haas, A. (2007). Introduction to communication disorders: A life perspective. Boston: Pearson Education.
Piaget, J. (1959). The language and thought of the child (3rd ed.; M. Gabian, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Piaget, J. (1966). Psychology of intelligence. New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams, and Company.
Ramsburg, D. (1998). Understanding literacy development in young children. Retrieved from http://library.adoption.com/Teaching-and-Training/Children/Understanding-literacy-Dev.
Reich, P. A. (1986). Language development. Upper Saddle River: Hall.
Roth, F. P., & Baden, B. (2001). Investing in emergent literacy intervention: A key role for speech-language pathologists. Seminars in Speech and Language, 22, 163–174.
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2003). Linguistic distance and initial reading acquisition: The case of Arabic diglossia. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 115–135.
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2004). The impact of phonemic and lexical distance on the phonological analysis of words and pseudowords in a diglossic context. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 495–512.
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2007). Linguistic constraints on children’s ability to isolate phonemes in Arabic. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 605–625.
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2011). Phonological processing in diglossic Arabic: The role of linguistic distance. In E. Broselow & H. Ouli (Eds.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XXII (pp. 269–280). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishers.
Saiegh-Haddad, E. (2012). Literacy reflexes of Arabic diglossia. In M. Leikin, M. Schwartz, & Y. Tobin (Eds.), Current issues in bilingualism: Cognitive and sociolinguistic perspectives (pp. 43–55). Springer.
Saiegh-Haddad, E., & Geva, E. (2010). Acquiring reading in two languages: An introduction to the special issue. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 23, 263–267.
Saiegh-Haddad, E., Levin, I., Hende, N., & Ziv, M. (2011). The linguistic affiliation constraint and phoneme recognition in diglossic Arabic. Journal of Child Language, 38, 297–315.
Sparks, R. (1995). Examining the linguistic coding differences hypothesis to explain individual differences in foreign language learning. Annals of Dyslexia, 45, 187–214.
Stanovich, K. (1986). “Matthew effects” in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 4, 360–407.
Stromquist, N. P. (2005). The political benefits of adult literacy. Paper commissioned for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006, Literacy for Life. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001461/146187e.pdf.
Tatum, B. D. (1997). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race. New York: Basic Books.
Teale, W. H. (1986). Home background and young children’s literacy development. In W. H. Teale & E. Sulzby (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. 173–206). Norwood: Ablex.
Teale, W., & Sulzby, E. (1986). Emergent literacy: Writing and reading. Norwood: Ablex.
Tibi, S., Joshi, M., & McLeod, L. (2013). Emergent writing: Young children in the United Arab Emirates. Written Language and Literacy, 16, 81–109.
Tibi, S., Sartawi, A., & Alghazo, E. (2006). The impact of housekeepers on reading & writing skills of first grade students in United Arab Emirates [in Arabic]. Journal of the College of Education, UAEU, 9, 13–32.
Toaimah, R. (2000). Teaching Arabic in public schools: Theories and applications [in Arabic]. Cairo: Dar Al Fikr Al Arabi.
UNESCO. (2006). Education for All: Global Monitoring Report 2006. http://www.unesco.org/education/GMR2006/full/chapt5_eng.pdf. Accessed on 24 Dec 2013.
van Kleeck, A., & Schuele, C. M. (1987). Precursors to literacy: Normal development. Topics in Language Disorders, 7, 13–31.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society; the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Whitehead, M. R. (2004). Language and literacy in the early years (3rd ed.). London: Sage.
World Data on Education. (2010). http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002117/211700e.pdf. Accessed on March 2010.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tibi, S., McLeod, L. (2014). The Development of Young Children’s Arabic Language and Literacy in the United Arab Emirates. In: Saiegh-Haddad, E., Joshi, R. (eds) Handbook of Arabic Literacy. Literacy Studies, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8545-7_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8545-7_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-8544-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-8545-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)