United Arab Emirates nationals (‘Emiratis’) constitute less than 10% of the resident population of Dubai. Despite having access to free education in the public sector, where Arabic is the medium of instruction, more Emirati families in Dubai choose to enrol their children in private schools (specifically English-medium schools) than public ones, believing that they offer better teaching and learning, better English instruction, and better school leadership. There is growing concern among policy makers and Emirati parents that young Emiratis are in danger of becoming detached from their national language and culture. The regulatory authority for private schools, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), is encouraging the private sector to explore bilingual educational models. This study seeks to establish the type of Arabic-English bilingual educational model that would suit the needs of Emirati families, and to explore the circumstances in which it can take root in Dubai’s private K-12 sector. The design follows a mixed methods sequential two-phased design utilising multiple sources of data generated through: written essays by a sample of 12 Emirati students selected from two schools (the qualitative phase), and a questionnaire directed at a broader set of Emirati students (the quantitative phase). Findings suggest a model built on four core principles: (1) explicit mention of bilingualism as a stated goal; (2) the use of both Arabic and English as mediums of instruction, with subjects divided more or less equally between them; (3) the deployment of first language Arabic and English teachers in equal measure or, alternatively, the utilisation of bilingual teachers; and (4) the promotion and use of Arabic in everyday tasks, both at home and in school. The findings also advocate that the model could assume any of multiple variants of Baker’s (2011) four strong bilingual types: immersion, maintenance, dual language, or mainstream. To bring the model to fruition the government of Dubai should consider investing in the initial training and retraining of Emirati teachers with the end goal that these teachers should populate Dubai’s Arabic-English bilingual schools, while also partially funding scholarship programmes that would encourage Emirati parents to select bilingual schools over other types.

中文翻译：

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迪拜私立 K-12 教育部门：寻求双语教育

阿拉伯联合酋长国国民（“Emiratis”）占迪拜常住人口的不到 10%。尽管可以在以阿拉伯语为教学语言的公共部门获得免费教育，但迪拜的更多阿联酋家庭选择让他们的孩子就读私立学校（特别是英语学校）而不是公立学校，因为他们认为私立学校提供更好的教学和学习、更好的英语教学和更好的学校领导。政策制定者和阿联酋父母越来越担心，年轻的阿联酋人有脱离本国语言和文化的危险。私立学校的监管机构知识与人类发展局 (KHDA) 正在鼓励私营部门探索双语教育模式。本研究旨在建立适合阿联酋家庭需求的阿拉伯语-英语双语教育模式，并探索其在迪拜私人 K-12 部门中扎根的环境。该设计遵循混合方法顺序两阶段设计，利用通过以下方式生成的多个数据源：从两所学校（定性阶段）中选出的 12 名阿联酋学生的样本的书面论文，以及针对更广泛的阿联酋学生的问卷调查（定量阶段）。调查结果提出了一个建立在四个核心原则之上的模型：(1) 明确提及双语作为既定目标；(2) 使用阿拉伯语和英语作为教学语言，科目之间或多或少平均分配；(3) 同等部署第一语言阿拉伯语和英语教师，或，或者，使用双语教师；(4) 在家庭和学校的日常工作中推广和使用阿拉伯语。研究结果还主张该模型可以假设 Baker (2011) 四种强双语类型的多种变体中的任何一种：沉浸式、维护式、双语或主流。为使该模式成为现实，迪拜政府应考虑投资于阿联酋教师的初步培训和再培训，最终目标是这些教师应在迪拜的阿拉伯语-英语双语学校中任职，同时还部分资助奖学金计划，以鼓励阿联酋父母选择双语学校而不是其他类型。研究结果还主张该模型可以假设 Baker (2011) 四种强双语类型的多种变体中的任何一种：沉浸式、维护式、双语或主流。为使该模式成为现实，迪拜政府应考虑投资于阿联酋教师的初步培训和再培训，最终目标是这些教师应在迪拜的阿拉伯语-英语双语学校中任职，同时还部分资助奖学金计划，以鼓励阿联酋父母选择双语学校而不是其他类型。研究结果还主张该模型可以假设 Baker (2011) 四种强双语类型的多种变体中的任何一种：沉浸式、维护式、双语或主流。为使该模式成为现实，迪拜政府应考虑投资于阿联酋教师的初步培训和再培训，最终目标是这些教师应在迪拜的阿拉伯语-英语双语学校中任职，同时还部分资助奖学金计划，以鼓励阿联酋父母选择双语学校而不是其他类型。