MINI REVIEW article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1518728
Running head: Arabic Diglossia: A Non-Deficit Model in the Analysis of Reading and Language Acquisition Arabic Diglossia: Advocating for a Non-Deficit Model in Comparative Analysis of Reading and Language Acquisition Running head: Arabic Diglossia: A Non-Deficit Model in the Analysis of Reading and Language Acquisition
Provisionally accepted
- University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, Whitewater, United States
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Arabic diglossia is a linguistic scenario in which Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Spoken Arabic (SpA) coexist within the same community, creating a unique context for literacy development. Research on the phonological and lexical distances between these varieties reveals significant effects on performance during reading and phonological awareness (PA) tasks, which are critical components of literacy development. Researchers have indicated that the phonemic and lexical distances between MSA and SpA can complicate PA, affecting reading skills, particularly among younger students. Initially intended as a systematic review, the limited number of studies fitting the criteria of this critical review led to the adoption of a narrative review approach, allowing for s a critical review of the research on the effect of phonological and lexical distance on reading processes. Although these studies show differences in performance in PA and reading tasks due to lexical distances between SpA and MSA, the authors of this article suggest that diglossia should be regarded as an inherent element in its native linguistic context and thus advocates against using a deficit model to interpret the results.
Keywords: diglossia, Arabic, reading skills, Phonological distance, Lexical distance
Received: 28 Oct 2024; Accepted: 23 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bergstrand Othman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lama Bergstrand Othman, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, Whitewater, United States
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