Webinar: “A Guide to Researching Arabic in Schools"

QFI organized a webinar entitled “A Guide to Researching Arabic as an Additional Language” in collaboration with University of Oxford's Department of Education to explore the evolving field of research into the learning and teaching of Arabic as an Additional Language (AL2).

Hosted by Robert Woore, Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics and director of the MSc in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition at University of Oxford, Department of Education, and Anna-Maria Ramezanzadeh, Arabic Language Researcher and Departmental Lecturer at University of Oxford, Department of Education, the webinar provided an overview of the current landscape of Arabic research, discussing key gaps in the field, and priority areas for future research identified by stakeholders.

Anna-Maria stated: “There is a rising demand for Arabic teaching both in the UK and worldwide, and in this case, we're talking about the learning of Arabic as an additional language...But we believe that this expansion needs to be underpinned by rigorous evidence as to how the language can be effectively learned and taught. The question is where can we get this evidence from?” Robert hoped the webinar would “provide some advice and guidance on how to conduct high quality, but also relevant research into teaching and learning Arabic as an additional language.”

Broken into two segments, the first portion of the webinar focused on mapping the landscape of research in AL2 and future directions of AL2 research. Highlighting why Arabic is a language of global significance, it broke down what makes Arabic so distinctive as a language to learn, the skills typically focused on in AL2 research, and gaps in the existing research. Robert and Anna-Maria shared a scoping review they had conducted to identify and categorize all existing research to date on AL2. The results were entered into a large database now available on the QFI website, which they hope to update periodically as a living resource. They then discussed overall gaps such as the lack of literature on young learners, different educational settings as factors, and the need for balance in geographical locations.

After thoroughly evaluating the current landscape, they looked to the future of AL2 research. They conducted a second study in two phases to establish priorities for new close-to-practice research through a priority setting partnership. Anna-Maria stated, “the aim of this particular study was to establish priorities for new research by asking and engaging stakeholders in the learning and teaching of Arabic, what they consider to be the most pressing areas for focus.” The first phase was the Oxford Collaboration for Arabic Research (OCAR) Survey which centered around eight main focus questions, and the second phase at the Qxford-QFI Forum held in July 2024 resulted in ten priority research questions the field could address.

The second webinar segment focused on producing high quality AL2 research, specifically sharing insights from an in-depth systematic review into the speaking, teaching, and learning of speaking Arabic. Here they focused on an experimental design model, as it gives the most direct guidance to practitioners and has the most direct link to what works in a classroom setting teaching Arabic. They then walked the audience through one of the research studies to show how they applied the framework and drew out implications for creating future high-quality research. In addition, they dove into the quality criteria for both qualitative and quantitative studies that are important to review before conducting data collection or designing their instruments.

Robert summarized the essence of the webinar: “Our driving ambition really is to expand the teaching and learning of Arabic in schools. Fundamentally, we would want any expansion of teaching...to be underpinned by a sound evidence-based, research-based understanding of what effective teaching and learning looks like in this language and in other languages.”

QFI is proud to be supporting this webinar along with the work of researchers that bridge the gap between research and practice.