Applied Linguistics in the Middle East and North Africa

“Grounded in dynamic explorations of topics that have emerged in MENA societies and educational circles, Atta Gebril has put together a very timely and critical book. While the chapters present rich, local explorations, findings should be of interest to applied linguists in general. Authors report on a variety of investigations, including language use and interlanguaging on online social media interactions, linguistic resources employed to promote or suppress tolerant public discourse, as well as the impact of Arabic varieties and the prevalence of English on linguistic practices and educational attainment.”

“This is a very interesting volume. It includes a range of highly topical subjects of relevance to applied linguistics, from the language associated with the fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia, religion and language in Egypt and global English in the Gulf, to the linguistic rivalry between English and French in Lebanon and the current and future states of the Arabic language. It also addresses applied-linguistic topics of specific relevance to the Arab world: multilingual reading tasks, student teacher narratives in computer-mediated discourse, the Standardized Test of Arabic Proficiency in Speakers of Other Languages (STAPSOL), English language proficiency assessments for English-medium Arab universities, corpora in investigating Arabic lexis, Arabic Language Teacher Education, Arabic curriculum design, and applied linguistics research in the MENA countries. The wide range of topics will appeal to specialists not only in applied linguistics, but also Arabic sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and dialectology. I recommend this work.”

“ Applied Linguistics in the Middle East and North Africa is a most welcomed and timely addition to the research literature on language, society, culture, and identity in the Arab world. Its chapters treat significant aspects of the sociolinguistic diversity found in the region with regard to the topics of political discourse, religious identity, linguistic landscapes, the use of international languages other than Arabic, and, particularly, language in educational contexts. Representing a range of countries and methodologies, the volume builds judiciously on earlier research, documents the present, and looks toward the future of the many ways applied linguistics can deepen our understanding of a region of great political, cultural, and linguistic significance.”

“This is a recommended read for researchers working on the MENA region, and scholars of Sociolinguistics and Didactics more generally will find individual chapters worthy of reflection and discussions.”

“This edited volume illustrates the exciting and diverse research landscape of the region today and positions applied linguistics in and about MENA on the international stage. It makes a timely and important contribution to the field.”