Arabic Heritage Language Learners: motivation, expectations, competence, and engagement in learning Arabic

Abstract

This paper investigates motivation, outcome expectations, competence and engagement of Arabic heritage learners. Fifty students belonging to two distinct groups participated in this study. The first group is comprised of heritage learners coming from Arabic speaking homes (Arab HLLs) while the second group is comprised of non-Arabic speaking Muslims (Muslim HLLs). The study aims to uncover trends amongst Arabic HLLs, therefore, means for the whole group were calculated. In addition to means, t-tests were performed to compare the two groups with regard to motivation, outcome expectations, and competence. Frequencies for engagement items for each group are provided separately. The results indicate that, on the one hand, Arabic HLLs possess a strong identity and community motivations. On the hand, their instrumental or utilitarian motivation is very weak. On the levels of skills, Arabic HLLs are more drawn to study Arabic to improve their communication skills rather than to learn about their heritage culture. In comparison to Muslim HLL, Arab HLLs perceived themselves more competent to achieve speaking proficiency than Muslim HLLs. Muslim HLLs desired to learn more about Islam and Islamic texts than Arab HLLs. The results o this study are discussed in light of classroom instruction and designing of curricula to match the needs of both groups of HLLs.

Keywords

• Arabic
• Heritage
• motivation
• expectations
• competence
• engagement