Introduction :

General education programs in Arab Gulf universities aim to offer a liberal arts program of elective courses that are general in nature, meaning they do not fall under a specific area of specialization.
For example, an undergraduate student who is majoring in architecture would normally undergo two years of undergraduate coursework that ranges from English language courses, history, political science, language courses such as Arabic or French, and Islamic studies. Moreover, coursework may involve research
methods courses or courses that prepare the student to complete a senior graduating project they are expected to fulfill when graduating. The general education program is meant to prepare students for their four years of undergraduate study. Among the main focuses of the general education program is mastery of the English language. This has become increasingly important as Arab Gulf Universities move towards a policy of using English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI). This in turn has raised the central question
that many Arab Gulf universities of today are debating and that is the question: what should be the language of instruction in Arab Gulf universities of higher education? Proponents of using English as a medium of instruction cite the importance of students mastering the English language as it is the language of the globalized economy. A language that is increasingly being asked of Arab Gulf university graduates who are employed by local and international companies in the workforce. Another argument made by parents is that their undergraduate daughters and sons may opt to continue their graduate work, and most will end up travelling abroad to study in English-speaking universities and would need English to be able to continue with their graduate studies. University administrators and university faculty cite that their textbooks and
instructional materials are in English and many of the faculty who are hired in Arab Gulf universities do not speak Arabic themselves. Proponents of using Arabic as the language of instruction are concerned about preserving the students’ cultural and national identity as well as preserving their native language.
They argue that Arabic is being used in their K-12 schools and so it makes sense that they continue to use Arabic as a medium of instruction in their university study. Some argue that after graduating students entering the workforce will need to interact with their peers in Arabic (government jobs) and school teachers will need to instruct in Arabic, so their university study should be in Arabic. Pedagogists and university faculty cite that students best understand using their native language of Arabic and that they struggle with the English language as a language of instruction in the classroom.
One way out of this dilemma has been to encourage bilingual instruction, in which both Arabic and English are used as a language of instruction inside the classroom. On November 15, 2022, the Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE ddedicate a forum to discuss the merits of bilingual education, while many Arab Gulf universities debate whether to make their language of instruction Arabic or English.
In this report I make the argument for bilingual education as an interim solution in the short term, while arabizing instructional resources and using Arabic as the language of instruction in the long term.
During my work in a general education program in Saudi Arabia for a period of six years, I became familiar with the bilingual background of my undergraduate students, who were female students majoring in a variety of subjects, and which type of obstacles they were facing. One of the major obstacles I faced was the English language barrier. Most of my students came from Arabic-speaking K-12 schools and would be required to receive their instruction in the English language during their four years of college study.
This presented a real challenge for most of the students. There was a language gap that I saw that prevented students from understanding classroom concepts as well as challenged their performance on assessments.
One way around this is to enrol students in a one-year English foundation program ahead of their enrolment in the general education program. The outcomes of this vary depending on the effectiveness of the foundation year program in preparing the students for their upcoming studies and the varying degree of preparedness of the students for their English language study. This is given how short one academic year in English instruction can be for some students who primarily come from K-12 schools instructing in Arabic.
In 2014 I formed a research group that spent the next five years looking at student and faculty preferences for bilingual versus monolingual instructors.
We surveyed and interviewed students and faculty on their preferences for bilingual and monolingual instruction. Bilingual instructors instruct primarily in the English language but also use Arabic in their classrooms.
While monolingual instructors only use English in their classroom instruction. The results of those studies were presented at regional conferences.
Next, we conducted an observational study where we collected data from the classrooms of bilingual and monolingual instructors and published our results recently in 2022 on the effectiveness of bilingual instructors over monolingual instructors. There is now a need to write a culminating report based on our research findings of the last five years to identify the best practices used by bilingual instructors and the coping strategies used by monolingual instructors. This I hope will be of benefit to instructors who are currently teaching in Arab Gulf universities and who have bilingual students in their classrooms.
In this report I focus on the best practices and coping strategies in the classroom that we observed from bilingual and monolingual instructors.
The two main research questions I wish to address in this report are:
1. What are the best practices used by bilingual instructors in the classroom?
2. What are the best coping strategies used by monolingual instructors in the classroom?
The implication of this report is in making recommendations for bilingual instruction in Arab Gulf
Universities (using both Arabic and English). This would entail a change of university policy to encourage the use of Arabic in classroom instruction, the recruitment of bilingual instructors who can instruct in both Arabic and English, and to offer best practices and coping strategies for both bilingual and monolingual instructors currently teaching in Arab Gulf university classrooms.