Arabic teenagers’ attitudes to electronic writing in Arabizi

Abstract

The globalization of English-based technology has caused the present-day Arab generation to rely on the use of the Latin script as the main writing system when communicating through the electronic medium in Spoken Arabic (SA). This has raised fears for the preservation of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the traditional orthography of Arabic. This study presents the attitudes of Arab adolescents in northern Israel towards the use of Arabizi (Latinized Arabic) in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), and towards MSA. The data were collected via a questionnaire completed by 8th grade students. The questions were divided into three different themes: (1) Demographic data, (2) The degree of control of communication with Arabizi in CMC, and (3) Subjects’ attitude towards Arabizi and MSA. The results show that although the students all use Arabizi and report that it is easier and more accessible to them, they consider MSA important and valuable, as it is related to their identity as Arabs.