Triglossia and Promoting Arabic Literacy in the United Arab Emirates

In response to globalisation, the United Arab Emirates has invested tremendous resources into their budding education system. Such investment has resulted in the increased use of a bilingual curriculum where Arabic and English are held in high regard. Unfortunately, such investment has not resulted in successful Arabic literacy among much of the Emirati youth. This paper uses a 15-item, open-ended questionnaire completed in Arabic by Emirati parents regarding their language practices with their children. The questionnaire results suggest that parents primarily use colloquial Arabic (CA) in the home and engage in few literacy practices using Modern Standard Arabic. The data from the parents also document a triglossic language context where there is increased need for improved Arabic literacy. The paper uses the questionnaire results to foreground a discussion of ways to promote language and literacy among Emiratis. First, the authors present the advantages and disadvantages of using local CA for early literacy practices. Second, the authors present a number of suggestions that would promote Arabic without codifying the colloquial variety.