Postgraduate research students

My research project concerns the family language policy (FLP) of Saudi sojourner families living temporarily in the UK. This includes parents’ ideologies about their children’s first (Arabic) and second (English) languages (e.g. values, goals, aspirations, etc.), the family language practices and uses in daily life and planning that parents conduct to raise their children bilingually. It aims to identify factors that may affect Saudi parents’ decisions, ideologies and practices regarding their children’s Arabic and English languages (e.g. monolingual environment, monolingual educational policy, religious and cultural affiliations, etc.). In addition, children’s ideologies about their two languages will be investigated in which questions related to their preferred language, language use in daily life, and their proficiency in both languages will be asked. This will be used to identify the children’s language identity and agentive roles in shaping their family language policy.

• Professor Bernadette O'Rourke
• Dr Piotr Wegorowski

- Fully funded scholarship by the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau (SACB) through the Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia.

• Conference attendance:
  • 2018 ORTESOL, Portland, OR. 
• Conference papers:
  • 2022 'Saudi sojourners in the UK: Parental attitudes towards their children’s bilingualism'  Linguacultural Spaces, University of Glasgow.