TITLE:
Towards Plurilingualism: The Future of Foreign Languages in Saudi Arabia
AUTHORS:
Haifa Alnofaie
KEYWORDS:
Plurilingualism, Youth, Attitudes, Motivation, Globalisation, Language Teaching Policy
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.7 No.5,
October
23,
2017
ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the phenomenon of plurilingualism that has emerged among Saudi youth. Although research on this topic is scarce, a few existing studies have revealed that various foreign languages which are not taught in Saudi schools or in Higher Education (HE) institutions, and are not spoken by Saudis, have gained high popularity among Saudi young people and children (Payne & Almansour, 2014; Alnofaie, 2016). This paper identifies popular foreign languages that are learnt by undergraduate Saudi females, explains their attitudes and motivation towards learning these languages and finally draws implications for a new policy of teaching foreign languages in Saudi’s HE sector. An attitudinal and motivational survey designed by D?rnyei & Csizér (2002) was adapted for data collection. The overall finding was that globalisation has had an obvious impact on Saudi youth in terms of building positive attitudes towards and motivation for learning foreign languages. This study adds to the small body of available literature on learning foreign languages that are not widely spoken in the country. It calls for rethinking foreign language teaching in Saudi HE institutions and highlights the need for a policy that encourages the teaching of diverse foreign languages. This study might inform language educators in other Middle Eastern and Asian countries whose youth might have developed an interest in learning various foreign languages.