Arabic as a Second Language in Israel: The State of the Art

Abstract

This paper deals with the teaching of Arabic in Israel as a second language. That is, it focuses on the teaching and learning of Arabic inside the Hebrew population sector. Given the sociolinguistic and pedagogical value of this issue, the article takes its methodological base from the different disciplines that shape the applied linguistics realm. In addition and having in mind the difficulty posed by having to grant academic justice to the slippery term of «context», it has been decided to explore a variety of perspectives that allow a coherent explanation of a necessarily complex phenomenon, manifestations and causes of which rest in more than one dominion of knowledge. We commence by analyzing the linguistic situation of Israel, taking on the hierarchical separation Hebrew-Arabic as well as its social and economic explanation. After that we review the Arabic related linguistic policies decreed, mainly, by the official institutions, focusing on the educational policies. Finally, we look into the factual pedagogical manifestations. In order to do so we analyze the phenomenon from three different perspectives: the teaching methods, the pupils’ attitudes and the learning outcomes. The causes of this educational failure, concludes the paper, are rooted in therefore mentioned spheres of linguistic performance: society, politics, and classrooms.