Language repertoires and attitudes of students in the United Arab Emirates

以下提案调查了居住在阿拉伯联合酋长国 (UAE)（由七个主权酋长国组成的宪法联邦）的个人的多语言能力和语言态度。阿联酋的社会语言学现状在很大程度上是未知领域，到目前为止，该领域的社会语言学研究还很少。以前进行的所有社会语言学研究都集中在特定性别的语言使用或特定专业人员的语言偏好上。此外，这些研究大部分集中于阿联酋国民，而忽视了阿联酋大多数非公民的语言习惯。尽管有一些研究试图描述阿联酋英语的特征，但目前仍然缺乏对当前语言生态学的研究来调查阿拉伯语（官方语言）和英语（事实上的通用语言）以及阿联酋不同社区使用的所有语言的持续使用和态度。因此，之前的大多数研究都要求进行更全面的调查，以更好地了解阿联酋，特别是沙迦/迪拜地区的语言状况。该项目的目的是提供大沙迦/迪拜地区社会语言学概况的第一份记录，该地区是一个主要由高度流动的移民组成的全球化大都市。对于阿联酋的代表性样本，我们从沙迦美国大学 (AUS) 的学生群体中提取数据，该大学由来自不同语言和种族背景的学生组成，因此为研究不同语言和英语作为全球语言的使用和态度提供了合适的环境。该研究旨在回答（i）澳大利亚国立大学学生的语言能力是什么，以及（ii）该地区的英语使用情况或对英语和其他语言的态度与我们在其他全球英语城市（例如新加坡、香港）发现的情况有何不同。这些数据将借助全面的在线调查问卷和半结构化访谈来获取。我们的研究将为阿联酋当前一代学生的多语言结构提供重要见解，这也为大学和阿联酋的语言政策制定者提供了重要信息。鉴于阿拉伯联合酋长国的语言群和发展与新加坡和香港等其他使用英语的全球化城市不同，我们预计参与者的语言库、用法和态度将显着不同且更加复杂。因此，我们的研究将为当前关于世界英语新模式的讨论提供例证，特别是关于第二语言和/或外语环境中的英语使用。

The following proposal investigates the multilingual repertoires and language attitudes of individuals living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a constitutional federation of seven sovereign emirates. The sociolinguistic status quo of the UAE is largely uncharted territory and so far, little sociolinguistic research has been done in that area. All previously conducted sociolinguistic studies have focused either on the language use of specific genders or on language preferences of particular professionals. Besides, the majority of these studies have centered on Emirati nationals to the neglect of the language practices of the majority non-citizen population of the UAE. Although a few studies have attempted to describe the features of English as spoken in the UAE, there remains a shortage of studies on the current linguistic ecology to investigate the ongoing usages of and attitudes towards not only Arabic (the official language) and English (the de facto lingua franca), but also all languages used by different communities in the UAE. Accordingly, most previous studies call for a much more comprehensive enquiry to better understand the linguistic situation in the UAE and more specifically the Sharjah/Dubai area. The purpose of this project is to provide a first documentation of the sociolinguistic profile of the greater Sharjah/Dubai area, a globalized conurbation populated largely by highly transient migrants. For a representative sample of the UAE, we draw our data from the student population of the American University of Sharjah (AUS) which is made up of students from diverse language and ethnic backgrounds and therefore, offers a suitable setting to study the use and attitudes towards different languages and English as a global language. The study aims to answer (i) what the language repertoires of students at AUS are, and (ii) to what extent the usage of English or the attitudes towards English and other languages present in this area differ from the situation that we find in other global English-speaking cities (e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong). The data will be elicited with the help of a comprehensive online questionnaire along with a semi-structured interview. Our study will offer important insights into the multilingual texture of the current student generation in the UAE, which also provides crucial information for language policy makers within the university as well as in the UAE. Given that the language constellations and developments in the United Arab Emirates differ from other English-using globalized cities like Singapore and Hong Kong, we expect the language repertoires, usage and attitudes of our participants to be significantly different and more complex. Hence, our study will offer exemplification for the current discussion of new models of World Englishes, especially concerning English use in second and/or foreign language contexts.