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The narratives portray the Arab reader as largely confined to classroom-based exposure, with limited engagement beyond formal schooling. The study links this pattern to the diglossic structure of Arabic, where speakers often master regional spoken varieties more than Standard Arabic. Cultural and linguistic factors collectively explain the perceived absence of a reading culture.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/diglossia-and-literacy-the-case-of-the-arab-reader-reading-and-literacy-acquisition-study/591622/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/diglossia-and-literacy-the-case-of-the-arab-reader-reading-and-literacy-acquisition-study/591622.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"supergirl","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-28","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What method and tools does the study use to collect and analyze data?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The study uses life-history interviews for data collection and NVivo as a data analysis tool.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How do the interviews describe the Arab readers’ reading exposure?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The narratives portray readers as largely dispassionate, with exposure to reading rarely extending beyond classroom walls.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What does the paper argue contributes to the lack of a reading culture in the Arab world?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It argues that an amalgamation of cultural and linguistic factors—especially diglossia—underlies the situation.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591622,1792191686,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":41,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},962088121634,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","Diglossia and Literacy: The Case of the Arab Reader  \nArab Journal of Applied Linguistics e-ISSN 2490-4198  \nVol. 3, No. 3, October 2017, 56-85 © The Author  \n[http://www.arjals.com](http://www.arjals.com)  \nGhada Gherwash 1  \nColby College, Assistant Professor of Writing/Multilingual Specialist, Waterville, Maine, USA  \nAbstract  \nUsing life-history interviews as a method of data collection and NVivo as a data analysis tool, this article presents a case study that focuses on how literacy, mainly reading, is practiced by four Arabic speakers from different parts of the Arab world. The narratives elicited from the interviews paint a picture of the Arab reader as dispassionate, whose exposure to reading rarely goes beyond the walls of the classroom. They attribute this situation partly to the diglossic nature of the Arabic language wherein users are oftentimes more proficient in the regional spoken varieties of the language than they are in Standard Arabic, the language of written discourse. This paper argues that the lack of a “reading culture” in the Arab world is due to an amalgamation of cultural and linguistic factors, among which is diglossia.  \nKeywords: Reading, Diglossia, MSA, Arabic, Literacy Introduction  \nRecently, researchers (e.g., Haeri; 2009; Myhill 2014) noticed discrepancies among the literacy reports from various countries in the Arab world. These researchers discovered that the stated literacy rate of a given Arab country varied from one report to the next. Often, the reports contradicted each other. These significant discrepancies drew the validity of the literacy reports into question and attracted the attention of additional researchers (e.g., Sayahi, 2015) .  \n1 Corresponding author:  \nGhada Gherwash, Colby College, Assistant Professor of Writing/Multilingual Specialist Email: [ggherwas@colby.edu](ggherwas@colby.edu)  \nDespite the newfound attention to literacy, the majority of new research on the topic of literacy acquisition focused on the acquisition of specific grammatical and morphological structures of the Arabic language (e.g., Saiegh-Haddad, 2011) . Very little research was conducted to explore the general nature of literacy acquisition in the Arab world (Mayhill, 2014) . In an attempt to fill the gap in the existing research, this case study aims to explore the ways in which diglossia along with cultural perceptions of literacy influenced the literacy acquisition of four native Arabic speakers from different parts of the Arab world.  \nBefore discussing diglossia and its influence on literacy acquisition, it is important to define what literacy and diglossia mean in the context of this study. In its simplistic form, literacy can be defined as an individual’s ability to read and write in a given language. The validity of this definition has been criticized by many literacy researchers for many reasons, one of which is its inability to account for the level of proficiency that a person must achieve in order to be considered literate (e.g., Dauzat & Dauzat, 1977; Heath, 1980) . Instead, researchers have begun to look at literacy on a case-by-case basis, where literacy and what it means to be literate is bound to given societal and cultural contexts (Scribner & Cole, 1981). Thus, if we accept that literacy and what it means to be literate is socially constructed rather than universally identified, then a universal definition of literacy would be more difficult to devise.  \nIn this paper, I define literacy as an individual’s ability to read and write in a given language that is in line with the socio-cultural and academic expectations of a given community. I believe this to be a more comprehensive definition of literacy because it goes  \nbeyond the individual’s ability to decode a written text to include cultural, historical, and institutional facets that give the literacy act its meaning (Kumagai & Lopez-Sanchez, 2015, p. 1) . In addition, literacy practices here refer to any encounter with the writte","cbCaieygs4UJ8wzJ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieygs4UJ8wzJ","pdf",955873,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Literacy discrepancies and research gaps\n# Defining literacy and diglossia in the study\n## Literacy as socio-cultural, context-bound practice\n## Diglossia as stable language organization","[{\"question\":\"What method and tools does the study use to collect and analyze data?\",\"answer\":\"The study uses life-history interviews for data collection and NVivo as a data analysis tool.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the interviews describe the Arab readers’ reading exposure?\",\"answer\":\"The narratives portray readers as largely dispassionate, with exposure to reading rarely extending beyond classroom walls.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the paper argue contributes to the lack of a reading culture in the Arab world?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that an amalgamation of cultural and linguistic factors—especially diglossia—underlies the situation.\"}]","Diglossia and Literacy: The Case of the Arab Reader - Reading and literacy acquisition study | PDF",1792072852,76]