‘We don’t think about it, we just mix’: language choice and ethnolinguistic identity among Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals in Israel

ABSTRACT

The medium of instruction of most Israeli institutions of higher education is Hebrew. Although there are a number of institutions where the medium of instruction is Arabic, many students belonging to the Arab-speaking minority choose to study in Hebrew-medium institutions. Studying in a Hebrew-speaking institution, as such, raises several issues among the Arabic-speaking minority in Israel, such as language choice, translanguaging, and the link between language and ethnolinguistic identity. This paper examines how Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals perceive the connection between their language practices and their ethnolinguistic identity. A mixed-methods methodology was adopted, combining data collected from in-depth interviews with Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals, and quantitative data collected through questionnaires. Results indicate that Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals differ in their attitudes towards the relationship between language choice and ethnolinguistic identity. This study contributes to the body of research exploring the relationship between language and identity in multilingual settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnolinguistic identity
• language and identity
• language choice
• translanguaging
• Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals
• Arabic-speaking minority in Israel
• Arab Israelis

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading and useful comments on an initial draft of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Although the questionnaire was anonymous, the testimonies below indicate the gender of the speaker because gender is grammatically marked in Hebrew verb conjugation.