The impact of incipient trilinguality on the socio-affective development of Jewish elementary school children in Israel

Abstract

For many decades now, applied linguistics studies have investigated the impact of second language acquisition on various aspects of the development of school children. Few studies, however, have focused on the simultaneous acquisition of two additional/second languages in the classroom. The present paper explores the impact of a spoken Arabic language programme in a Jewish elementary school in Israel on the children's socio-affective (attitudinal) development. The participants of the study comprised fourth-grade students studying two second languages, English and Arabic (the focal group), and comparable children in a regular programme, who study only one second language, English, in school (the control group). Participants answered attitude questionnaires; in addition, interviews with the Arabic teachers were carried out. Results indicated that participating in a spoken Arabic programme in elementary school indeed had a positive impact on Jewish children's attitudes towards the Arabic language, culture and population. It is hoped that information from this study will be useful in designing and implementing innovative language programmes throughout the globe.