Omani parents keep Arabic alive

More parents are using a new parenting technique to try and balance English and Arabic language for their children

MUSCAT: Omani parents are keeping Arabic alive by using a new parenting technique.

More parents are using a new parenting technique to try and balance English and Arabic language for their children, as more students from international schools leave with poor knowledge and learning of Arabic.

The technique involves one parent talking to their children in English while the other parent speaks in Arabic, in order for the children to grow up with a balance of both languages.

“Because my daughter is in an international school, she will be more exposed to the English language than Arabic, so at home, I speak to her in Arabic and her father speaks to her in English,” said a mother who decided to use this technique.

This comes after more Omanis are seen struggling with Arabic.

Marwa Al Maawali, a university student said, “My whole life, I have been speaking English at home, and so when I went to school, it was a struggle to go from one language to another. Even though a lot of students spoke Arabic in my school, I made sure that my friends could speak English.”

“When I have children, I would make sure that they can balance both languages, by me speaking in English and my husband speaking in Arabic,” she added.

One international school in the Sultanate is trying to combat this by creating ‘Arabic only’ zones in Arabic classes. The principal said: “We are trying to put support plans into action, and engage more parents and teachers into these plans.”

“Not all parents take a proactive role in ensuring that their children learn the Arabic language at home,” he added.

Oman is not the only country facing this problem; it can be seen as a negative impact of globalisation, where the English language being widely used in societies.

Commenting on why he uses the balancing technique with his daughter, one father said: “The Arabic language is slowly deteriorating, everything nowadays is in English, schools, social media, television, so it is very important to ensure my daughter has enough exposure to Arabic so that she does not lose it.”

For some families, this parenting style has been going on for generations. “When I was young, my father would never speak to me and my siblings in English, and if we asked him a question in English, he would not reply. Now I want the same for my children because I know it works,” said a parent.