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In light of the expanding global demand for Arabic as an additional language (AL2) instruction and the pedagogical challenges resulting from the complex linguistic and socio-linguistic nature of the language, there is a critical need to understand appropriate approaches for teaching AL2. Research into AL2 can make a crucial contribution to debates concerning effective policy and pedagogy. As a first step towards this goal, we conducted a systematic scoping review, providing a clear picture of existing research into the learning and teaching of AL2. This provides an overview of: the extent and nature of available research evidence; where it can be found; which topics and learning contexts have been studied; which methodological approaches have been used; and where there are gaps in the literature. In the first part of our talk, we will share findings of this scoping review.
Building on this, we next conducted a series in-depth systematic reviews on the learning and teaching of AL2 speaking, reading, writing and listening. We focused on experimental and quasi-experimental studies which are designed to assess causal relationships between variables – for example, the effect of a particular pedagogical intervention on a given outcome variable. In the second part of this talk, we provide an overview of these findings, focusing in-depth on phonology-related studies. Many of these studies had serious limitations when then judged against the ‘gold standard’ of large scale RCTs. However, we argue that rigorous small-scale classroom-based research can still be valuable, provided that the scope of the claims are warranted by the evidence gathered.
Bio:
Robert Woore is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at University of Oxford Department of Education. Formerly a secondary school Modern Languages teacher, his research interests include the learning and teaching of additional languages (particularly Languages Other than English) in schools.
Anna-Maria Ramezanzadeh is a Departmental Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, a language researcher and a curriculum developer. Her research areas include Arabic applied linguistics, language learning motivation, and individual and group differences in second language acquisition.
