Language, like culture, was once considered a closed system of meaning, which when deciphered by the anthropologist would reveal the secrets of the society they observed. Having deconstructed language and culture to recognize the inherent inability to untangle the anthropologists own language and culture from that of the subject, it has become necessary to reassess what we actually know about language and culture and what it can tell us about social phenomena. In this vein, this paper interrogates the linguistic situation in Doha, Qatar, where an education reform initiative designed to engender an Arab and Islamic intellectual revival has taken as its first steps the development of English language in every sector of education, from pre-school to higher education. While English is viewed as the language of math, science and technology and overall economic and social progress, Arabic is invested with the responsibility to “preserve tradition” and maintain a connection to the larger Arab community and the history of the region. In the process of reforming the Qatari education system there have been many criticisms regarding their use of Western agencies, institutions and languages. While the state vigorously defends the Arabic and Islamic character of these reforms, there is a growing disconnect between the state’s vision and the inequity of language education in Qatar’s schools. Throughout the course of fieldwork, it was evident that the reform was preparing the elite of Qatari society to speak, read and write English extremely well, but was failing them in giving them comparable skills in Arabic. Several ethnographic accounts reveal the concern of Arab educators regarding this conundrum and even reform leaders recognizing the absence in quantity and quality Arabic instruction. As English becomes an increasing part of the curriculum in schools in Qatar, it is becoming imperative that the visionaries of this cultural and educational renaissance address the oft-mentioned concerns of interlocutors regarding Arab identity and language. This paper addresses the catch-22 of a state presenting a facade of linguistic unity while in actuality subverting it with linguistic plurality and in some instances, hegemony.

Against the background of a decade of economic liberalization and a nascent civil society, upwardly mobile young Syrians have increasingly turned to specific interactional styles and linguistic devices to distinguish themselves as members of a new elite. These young professionals have cultivated an interactional norm that requires inserting English lexical items and socially significant sentences into Arabic conversations. Such linguistic devices display their knowledge of Western popular culture, their commitment to developing a corporate business culture in Syria and their belief in the social power of volunteerism. In addition, the styles both index an orientation towards progressive, neoliberal social changes in Syria and erect boundaries that exclude those who cannot appropriately master and deploy English in interactional contexts. Based on 18 months of dissertation research in Damascus, Syria, this presentation will explore how linguistic practices that incorporate English words and phrases erect and enforce social boundaries among Damascus’ young adults. The interactional styles are most often on display at the entrepreneurial organizations and volunteer activities that have proliferated in Damascus in recent years. Drawing on extensive participant observation and interviews, this presentation will discuss this new Syrian paradox: that a social group whose primary identification is to eliminate nepotism, increase transparency and mobilize civil society simultaneously marks itself through exclusionary and often alienating interactional styles. It will further argue that the commitment to such interactional styles means that volunteer and civic activities actually serve to reify and make concrete socio-economic class divisions rather than minimize or eliminate them.

With the advance of globalization, the assumptions of homogeneity within a culture are being challenged (Giddens 2002). Moreover, through globalization, English is quickly solidifying its status as a global language (Crystal 2003; Graddol 2006). Kuwait, a country of approximately three million people, two-thirds of whom are foreigners, is particularly affected by this phenomenon. As a result of the number of foreigners who are working in the country, the use of English as a lingua franca is commonplace. While regarded as beneficial in many contexts, the significance of using English, namely as a language still mostly controlled by inner-circle countries (Kachru 1992), creates some conflicting feelings as a result of its association with Western cultures. This paper explores the role of English in Kuwait and whether adapting English as a general lingua franca in the country is acting as a force in destroying cultural identity or actually reinforcing it (Phillipson 1992 & 2009; Kramsch 1998; Pennycook 2010). In particular, this paper focuses on the different attitudes expressed by Kuwait University students in relation to learning English for academic/professional success versus the social and cultural implications of learning and speaking the language. To cope with these two arenas of their lives, these students engage in a complex negotiation process as they juxtapose their identity within the context of Kuwait’s changing sociopolitical environment. Using a qualitative, ethnographic approach, this paper is based on interviews with eight Kuwaiti students studying at Kuwait University. The interviews provide thick descriptions that illustrate the social complexities related to the development of identity in association to the spread of English in Kuwait. The respondents demonstrate that in negotiating a space that balances tradition and modernization, they have created a new language that reflects how they actively and critically engage with their environment to balance, adjust, and construct their own identity.