The Learning of Arabic by Israeli Jewish Children

Abstract

For Israeli Jewish children, Arabic represents the “language of conflict.” The participants were 107 sixth-grade learners of Arabic. They completed attitude questionnaires, read isolated words and pseudowords, and took tests for reading comprehension and listening comprehension. The participants displayed negative attitudes toward learning Arabic, with 1 exception: They had positive attitudes toward the classroom situation. The classroom situation was also the best predictor of Arabic learning. Even though the Jewish-Arab social context is politically charged, the children were influenced more by their teachers and their classroom environments than by sociopolitical variables such as instrumental and integrative attitudes and security purposes.