Translanguaging on Social Media by Educated Arabs

Translanguaging is the ability to move smoothly between the languages that a person knows. A sample of Facebook posts written by a sample of educated Arabs was collected. All the participants are native speakers of Arabic and have a good command of English or French as English/French was the medium of instruction in their major area of specialization such as medicine, computer, and engineering. The study aims to find out whether educated Arabs are capable of communicating equally well in both English/French (L2) and Arabic (L1) especially that Arabic is diaglossic having a standard form used in school textbooks, print material and formal situations and a colloquial form used in daily communication with family and friends. Data analysis showed that most educated Arabs are incapable of translanguaging. They communicate better and are more proficient in English/French than Arabic. Their weaknesses are manifested in their use of slang and Colloquial Arabic rather than Standard Arabic. Many completely ignore Standard Arabic spelling and grammar rules. They spell words the way they pronounce them in their local dialect. Many make agreement, definite article attachment, plural formation, and derivation errors. They code mix, i.e., transliterate English/French words and insert them in Arabic posts (cases الكيسز, schemes اسكيمز, share شير). They do not seem to know the Arabic equivalents of simple general and specialized English/French words (center سنتر, neuro نيورو, maps المابس). They even substitute simple Arabic words with English ones (shoes, fans, café, like, comment). It seems that educated Arabs are unable to think in L1 and L2 simultaneously. Their knowledge of English/French surpasses that of Arabic. They transfer the foreign pronunciation and structures to Arabic. Recommendations for reinforcing the native language and enhancing translanguaging skills are given.