This book focuses on applied linguistics research conducted in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It draws readers’ attention to less frequently researched regions in applied linguistics and offers insights into local language-related practices, as mentioned in ch. 1 (Gebril). The collection of articles cover a wide range of contexts in MENA, such as Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Varieties of Arabic and English are the main languages studied in this book, and other languages like French are also included in some of the discussions. This book is divided into three sections dealing with language and society, language in education and then future of applied linguistics in MENA respectively.
In section I, ch. 2 (Naima Boussofara), ch. 3 (Reem Bassiouney), and ch. 6 (Marilyn Plumlee) explore the use of languages in the public sphere, namely presidential speeches, the media (online articles, movies, and songs), and city signage. Ch. 4 (Alexander M. Lewko) and ch. 5 (Laila S. Dahan) investigate language use by university students at English-medium universities. These chapters show how languages are linked to identity in the MENA countries on societal and individual levels. Ch. 7 (Kassim Shaaban) discusses the macro-linguistic situations in Lebanon and provides another lens into the relations between language and society.
Section II involves discussions of Arabic, English, and multilingual use in education. Teacher education is one major theme. Ch. 11 (Lori Fredricks) dwells on TESOL teacher education and ch. 12 (Hanada Taha) on Arabic language teacher education. In addition, the corpus study of Arabic vocabulary in ch. 13 (Ashraf Abdou) also provides pedagogical implications to teachers of Arabic as a foreign language. Another major theme in this section is language testing. Ch. 9 (Bjorn Norrbom & Abdulrahman Al-Shamrani) examines the validity of an Arabic language test, and ch. 10 (Deena Boraie, Elizabeth Arrigoni, & Jonah Moos) evaluates the use of English-language proficiency assessments in English-medium university admissions. Research on language in education is more than language education: for example, ch. 8 (Dudley W. Reynolds) presents a case study of multilingual reading strategies in science.
Section III concerns the future of language, education and applied linguistics in the MENA countries. Ch. 14 (John C. Eisele) reflects on the past and present of Arabic and contemplates its future, ch. 15 (Mahdi Alosh) looks at a possible conceptual framework to guide future Arabic curriculum design, and ch. 16 (Gebril) points out some considerations for future research, such as in terms of promoting tolerance and diversity.
All in all, this book is a valuable contribution to applied linguistics not only because of its particular emphasis on the MENA countries, but also due to its attention to multilingualism in the era of globalisation. This can be showcased in the above-discussed studies concerning multilingual regions and multilingual speakers.
With its diversity of topic areas, this book is likely to appeal to a broad range of researchers across applied linguistics, especially those interested in MENA contexts. Practitioner researchers will find it extremely helpful, because it covers many aspects of education, from teacher education, curriculum design, and language testing to students’ language attitudes, and provides practical suggestions accordingly.
