The Role of the Colloquial Varieties in the Acquisition of the Standard Variety: The Case of Arabic Heritage Speakers

Abstract: The study investigated the acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) by second language (L2) learners and by heritage speakers of the colloquial varieties of Arabic. The study focused on three questions: (1) whether heritage speakers who enroll in college-level elementary MSA classes have an advantage over their L2 counterparts, (2) whether any potential advantage that heritage speakers may bring into the classroom carries on to a later stage of their MSA learning, and (3) the role of positive or negative transfer from the colloquial variety in the acquisition of MSA in a formal setting. Thirty-five heritage speakers (19 elementary and 16 advanced), 28 advanced L2 learners, and 16 native-speaker controls completed five negation tasks. The results indicated that, whereas elementary heritage speakers entered the MSA classroom with an advantage over their L2 counterparts in the area under study, the advanced heritage speakers exhibited patterns that were comparable to those of the L2 learners. Unlike their L2 counterparts, however, the advanced heritage speakers displayed positive and negative transfer effects from colloquial Arabic. The findings are discussed in the framework of three models/hypotheses of first language transfer to a third language, and their pedagogical implications for Arabic language teaching and learning are explicated.Key words: Arabic, colloquial variety heritage speakers, L2 learners, standard variety(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)IntroductionMany students who enroll in Arabic language courses in U.S. colleges and universities are of Arab descent, children of parents who immigrated from the Arab world and who are native speakers of one of the colloquial spoken varieties. These learners are referred to as heritage speakers. Heritage speakers acquire the colloquial dialects of their parents in the home. However, many of them use their heritage/first language (L1) mainly with parents, extended family members, and perhaps members of the com- munity, and often begin to stop using it, shifting primarily to English, often in ele- mentary school. Because there may be rela- tively scarce resources available in these spoken varieties and due to the limited op- portunities to practice them outside the home, heritage learners' ability to use their L1 effectively in everyday interactions may be severely reduced as they progress through school (Albirini, 2013).One of the main challenges that Arabic heritage speakers often face in the Arabic language classroom is that the language taught in most American colleges and uni- versities, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), is different from the colloquial dialects that they may have acquired in the home. This challenge is compounded by the fact that little is known about the role of colloquial Arabic in facilitating or inhibiting the acqui- sition of the standard variety or the possibil- ity of enhancing proficiency in both varieties simultaneously. This challenge exists in a number of languages, including, e.g., Mandarin Chinese, German, Spanish, and Arabic, where two or more varieties of the same language coexist in a speech com- munity (Danesi, 1974; Gutierrez, 1997; Jaensch, 2012; Pauwels, 1986; Potowski, Jegerski, & Morgan-Short, 2009; Valdes, 2001).In the case of Arabic, the two varieties at play, Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial Arabic, vary in form, distribution, and func- tion. MSA is fairly uniform across the Arab region. As the official language, or one of the official languages, of 22 countries of the Arab League, MSA is used in formal educa- tion, formal business transactions and docu- ments, administration, Qur'anic schools, and print media. Unlike MSA, colloquial Arabic varies across and within countries, does not have a standardized script, and is therefore mainly used in the home, in casual daily interactions, and in spontaneous un- scripted speech. MSA and colloquial Arabic also differ in terms of structure and acquisi- tion. …