Plurilingual pedagogy in higher education in the UAE: Student voices in an academic writing course

Abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a country with a population consisting of approximately 85% of expatriates, i.e., roughly 15% are locals (World Population Review, 2020). Such multicultural community brings into the country a variety of cultures and languages, with 58% of non-UAE nationals being South Asian (e.g., Indian, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani), 17% being Asians (e.g., Filipinos), and 8.5% from Western origin (e.g., American and English) (World Population Review, 2020). The official language is Arabic; however, given the population diversity, English, Hindi, and Urdu are quite present in the daily lives of resi-dents (World Population Review, 2020). There is no need for a foreign visitor or resident of the UAE to speak or understand Arabic since English is utilized as the lingua franca in the country (Siemund, Al-Issa & Leimburger, 2020 citing Barnawi, 2017). Often, Emiratis need to resort to English in shops, cafés, and restaurants as staff does not speak Arabic.

Keywords: Plurilingual, Pedagogy, Higher education, U.A.E.