The reviewed literature indicated that early literacy development in Arabic is a significant area of study for a number of reasons, some of which relate to the special characteristics of the Arabic language in terms of diglossia and complex orthography. Another reason is that Arabic is the religious language for Muslims as it is the language of the Qur’an (Mahfoudhi et al., 2011) (see Chapter 2). Nevertheless, only limited research has been conducted on Arabic early literacy compared to the large body of research available on literacy learning in different languages such as English (Abu-Rabia, 2000; Mannai and Everatt, 2005; Palmer et al., 2007; Levin et al., 2008; Ibrahim, 2011; Mahfoudhi et al., 2011; Aram et al., 2013a; Russak and Fragman, 2013; Ibrahim, 2013b).
Research on Arabic early literacy has revealed reading obstacles that are faced by Arabic-speaking children and this may be referred to as the diglossia of Arabic (Abu-Rabia, 2000; Ibrahim, 2013b). In this respect, Aram and colleagues (2013a) stated that the difficulty in developing literacy in Arabic is a result of the gap between the two forms of Arabic; the first form is Standard Arabic which is used in education, books, stories and media and the other form is the vernacular which is used in everyday communication with different dialects. Farran et al. (2012) argued that vocabulary (lexicon) is one of the elements where Standard Arabic differs than vernacular Arabic.
Researchers in the area of Arabic literacy emphasised the importance of exposing kindergarten children to the Standard Arabic as it has a significant effect on their literacy development (Leikin et al., 2014). Al-Dannan’s (1999) longitudinal study on using Standard Arabic in conversation with his children at an early age found that children can naturally acquire the Standard form of Arabic if they are exposed orally to it during their early years (Al-Dannan, 2014). A more recent study that investigated Arabic emergent literacy for kindergarteners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) found that children use Standard Arabic when they interacted with a teacher who used this form of Arabic (Tibi and McLeod, 2014). Relevant literature also indicated that reading stories is a vital source in developing vocabulary for diglossic languages such as Arabic (Foorman et al., 2002; Saiegh-Haddad and Spolsky, 2014). In early childhood education, Fedda and Oweini (2012) argued that Arabic-speaking children are supposed to be exposed to Standard Arabic through literacy activities, religious literacy and teachers’ oral language.
Arabic linguistic researchers have stressed the overlapping features of the different varieties of Arabic and its positive impact on language learning and development (Saiegh-Haddad and Spolsky, 2014; Myhill, 2014). In this respect, Khamis-Dakwar and Makhoul (2014) argued that Arabic-speaking children have a “metadiglossic awareness”; that is, an awareness about the variations in forms of Arabic, which plays a crucial role in promoting Arabic early literacy. The authors also reported that the notion of “code-switching”, the use of two or more languages in the spoken language (Smith, 2014), also applies in transferring between both forms of Arabic – Standard and vernacular – in the spoken language. In addition, Palmer et al. (2007) argued that Arabic-
tend to have what is termed a “metalinguistic advantage” that has been noticed in bilingual children.
In this respect, Al-Azraqi (2014) carried out a study in the East region of Saudi Arabia to investigate the appropriateness of preschools’ language learning programmes to overcome the gap between the Standard and the vernacular forms of Arabic. Data that were collected through quantitative and qualitative methods found that the existing language programmes in Saudi Arabian preschools were not designed to help children to bridge the gap between the two forms of Arabic as little attention has been given to exposing preschoolers to Standard Arabic. The researcher ascribed that to the lack of awareness of the diglossic nature of Arabic. In line with this study, Tibi and McLeod (2014) called for further research on the impact of diglossia on children’s Arabic literacy, and suggested that issues for diglossia need to be considered when planning for Arabic early literacy. They also raised the importance of promoting Standard Arabic in preschool classrooms through meaningful and culturally appropriate practices.
Numerous Arabic studies examined the role of the Qur’an in developing Arabic language for students who speak Arabic as a first language. This line of research has shown the crucial influence of the Qur’an on the development of the Arabic language and literacy (Allan, 2013; Ibrahim, 2013a). For instance, Allan (2013) investigated the role of the Qur’an in maintaining the meanings of Arabic words. Also, several studies published in English (Gregory et al., 2012a; Gregory et al., 2012b; Gregory et al., 2014) have laid some groundwork in investigating Arabic language, as a second language, within religious practices. Studies carried out by Gregory and colleagues in London revealed
that children develop different skills related to language and literacy, logical reasoning, cultural and social skills through faith activities.
With regard to early writing in Arabic, the reviewed literature indicated that early literacy development in Arabic in terms of the written form is slower than in other languages due to the visual complexity of the Arabic script (Ibrahim, 2011; Russak and Fragman, 2013). Ihmeideh (2009) carried out a qualitative study to investigate the influence of daily writing activities on promoting early writing for kindergarteners in Jordan. His study found that children who were exposed daily to writing activities such as drawings, scribbling, making lists, writing cards and stories showed good progress in their Arabic early writing. Ihmeideh (2014a) also conducted a further study in Jordanian kindergartens which showed that the dramatic play area has a significant role in developing early writing for Arabic-speaking children. In particular, Ihmeideh found that, through dramatic play, children produced different forms of emergent writing such as letter-like forms and writing through drawing.
Tibi, Joshi and McLeod (2013) investigated kindergarten children’s emergent writing in the UAE. The study found that limited writing opportunities were available to Emirati children at home and the researchers referred that to parents’ lack of awareness about the significant role of early home literacy practices. They also found that writing activities in kindergartens, which were very few, focused on worksheets and writing letters. The researchers ascribed that to the teachers’ perceptions about children’s early writing development. Reviewing the literature in the area of Arabic early literacy also indicated that developing phonological awareness skills during preschool years is considered a vital predictor for Arabic-speaking children’s future reading skills (Mannai
and Everatt, 2005; Mahfoudhi et al., 2011; Taibah and Haynes, 2011; Callaghan and Madelaine, 2012).
A number of studies have addressed kindergarten teachers’ practices and perceptions on Arabic early literacy. In Qatar, a quantitative study explored teachers’ perspectives on early writing in the preschool setting. The study found that the participant teachers showed positive attitudes towards teaching early writing in preschool settings in Qatar (Ihmeideh and Al-Maadadi, 2015). Al-Qaryouti et al. (2016) undertook a recent survey in the Arabian Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, to explore kindergarten’s teachers strategies in promoting children’s emergent literacy. They found that kindergarten teachers in the Arabian Gulf countries gave high consideration to the knowledge of letters in their literacy teaching practices. The study also called for the need for further research on kindergarten teachers’ literacy practices in the Arabian Gulf countries, an area that has not been given full attention by the Arab researchers. In the context of the Arabian Gulf, another study conducted in the UAE found that kindergarten teachers gave more attention to oral language and memorisation skills (Tibi and McLeod, 2014).
Research from socio-cultural perspectives of early literacy development in Arabic, which is very limited, has highlighted the important role of parental mediation in early literacy development for Arabic-speaking children (Aram et al., 2013a; 2013b; Tibi and McLeod, 2014; Korat et al., 2014). Aram and colleagues (2013a) carried out a study in Israel to explore Arabic-speaking kindergarteners’ early literacy within their home context with a particular focus on mother-child joint writing. The researchers used both quantitative and qualitative methods in collecting their data. The study stressed the importance
of the family context and maternal mediation in Arabic-speaking children’s literacy development.
Korat and colleagues (2014) also investigated Arabic language and literacy development for Israeli Arabic-speaking kindergarteners at home. Their focus was on two literacy practices, storybook reading and joint writing. The study found that children’s early literacy development at home was influenced by parental mediation, home literacy environment and the family’s socio- economic status. In addition, Tibi and McLeod (2014) carried out qualitative research that drew on socio-cultural perspectives to investigate children’s Arabic emergent literacy in the kindergarten and at home in the UAE. Their focus was on issues of bilingualism, diglossia and writing, and findings showed that literacy practices within the context of children’s families were limited.
The above section discussed a number of studies in the area of Arabic early literacy that took place in the Middle East. Most of these adopted a quantitative method, and a few studies were qualitative. It can be deduced from the reviewed literature that only one study investigated different aspects of Arabic early literacy (Tibi and McLeod, 2014); however, most attention has been paid to particular components of early literacy such as phonological awareness (Mannai and Everatt, 2005; Taibah and Haynes, 2011) and early writing (Ihmeideh, 2009; 2014a; Tibi et al., 2013). Furthermore, the above discussion showed that limited existing studies in the field of Arabic early literacy were informed by socio-cultural perspectives (Aram et al., 2013a; 2013b; Korat et al., 2014; Tibi and McLeod, 2014). The review also confirmed that, in Saudi Arabia, there are very limited studies not only on the Arabic language and early literacy but also on how literacy is promoted and practiced in preschool
education (Taibah and Haynes, 2011; Al-Azraqi, 2014; Al-Qaryouti et al., 2016).
Hence, and driven by the existing gaps in the above literature, this study set out to investigate early literacy practices in a Saudi Arabian preschool classroom from a socio-cultural perspective. Specifically, I investigate early literacy as a social practice that is embedded in the Saudi Arabian socio-cultural contexts. I also seek to add methodological contributions to the area of Arabic early literacy research by using the ethnographic approach as – to the best of my knowledge – no ethnographic studies have been undertaken in the area of Arabic early literacy in the Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia.