More vision than renaissance: Arabic as a language of science in the UAE

Since its unification in 1971, the United Arab Emirates has experienced tremendous growth. Wealth generated by the oil industry has helped the country rapidly develop all levels of the educational system along with the economy (Davidson in After the Sheikhs: the coming collapse of the Gulf monarchies, Hurst, London, 2013). English has become prominent in the domains of business and education (Burden-Leahy in Comp Educ 45(4):525-544, 2009), in part as a result of powerful de facto policy (Shohamy in Language policy: hidden agendas and new approaches, Routledge, New York, 2006) from the increasingly neoliberalized economy. As the UAE government struggles with the roles of Arabic and English, it has recently developed policies promoting English as the sole language of science in grade school while simultaneously formulating the Arabic Language Charter. This paper analyzes the UAE’s past and present policy choices and investigates the nexus that has developed between business, language and science education in the country. Considering processes of neoliberalization (Harvey in A brief history of neoliberalism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005; Kanna in cult Anthropol 25(1):100–129, 2010) and linguistic imperialism (Karmani in J Lang Identity Educ 4(2):87–102, 2005a; Phillipson in Linguistic imperialism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992), the paper examines the rise of English as a language of science globally, focusing on the particular challenges faced by Arabic speaking countries. It then outlines the development of the Emirati educational systems and draws on sociolinguistic studies conducted in the UAE to explore the relationship that Emiratis have with English and Arabic. Finally, the paper assesses the potential of the new Charter to shape the nation’s linguistic and scientific future. It highlights key areas of concern that must be addressed if the Charter is to become more than an empty promise in the face of an Arabic language continuing to lose its viability in key domains of Emirati society.