The Perceived Impact of Early Exposure to the English Language on their Native Language: A Case Study

نوع المستند : المقالة الأصلية

المؤلف

Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics College of Languages & Translation King Khalid University

المستخلص

         Given that the optimal age for learning foreign languages is that which occurs before the puberty age, this study aimed to explore the impact of early English exposure of Arab learners at an early stage of schooling on their mother language, i.e., Arabic as perceived by learners and their parents. The researcher employed two questionnaires that tapped into the learners' and parents' perceptions by collecting quantitative and qualitative data within a descriptive research design. Participants included forty-seven students and twenty-five parents to inform the present study, all selected by convenience sampling. Results indicated that for the present sample, 50% of informants agreed that they were used to speaking English at home while the other half of the sample indicated that they did not use but Arabic at home. For parents' perceptions, 68% of the informant parents indicated that their children preferred to use Arabic in their communication at home. This means that informants who use English in browsing the Internet and in communicating in the social media, indicates that the early exposure to English language can affect the Arabic language. Further research is needed to (dis)confirm these results and explain their pedagogical implications for English education in the Arab world.

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