Oxford/QFI Forum: Arabic Research and Practice in Schools

Oxford and QFI are hosting a two-day forum for researchers and practitioners at the Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK on 11th-12th July 2024, to bridge the gap between research and practice. We want to bring together key stakeholders from the AL2 community to discuss the findings of Oxford's systematic reviews and to consider actionable implications and next steps for teaching and learning AL2 in schools.

Recently, a team at the University of Oxford completed a scoping review of research available on teaching and learning Arabic as an additional language (AL2). We use the term ‘Arabic as an additional language’ to refer to the teaching and learning of Arabic as anything other than a first language (i.e., a language learned in infancy through naturalistic exposure). This includes both foreign language and second language learning, as well as heritage language learning.

This scoping review identified over 700 studies across a wide range of topic areas. One key finding from the scoping review is that there is relatively little research focused on school-aged learners. These may differ in important ways from adult learners, who have more often been the focus of research. 

The team at Oxford is currently working on a series of in-depth systematic reviews of research findings in key areas of Arabic pedagogy.