Policy and Teaching English to Palestinian Students in Israel: An Ecological Perspective to Language Education Policies

Abstract

The chapter examines policy and teaching English among Palestinian schoolchildren in Israel, relating them to their complex linguistic repertoire, the Israeli context, and English as a global language. Today, Arabic is the language of instruction in Palestinian schools in Israel. Hebrew is learned as a second language by all the Palestinian pupils from the third grade on. English is then added on, a third language for the Arabic speaking pupils, or a fourth considering the spoken language used as the home language and for on-going communicative needs. Palestinian language education serves different purposes: Arabic is the language of personal, cultural and national identity; Hebrew is an important language for social mobility, for higher education, and for shared citizenship; English is a global language, and a window on the wider world. English is as important to Israeli Palestinians as to other Israelis because of its status as international language. Many English words have been borrowed into Arabic by way of Hebrew. There is no distinct English curriculum for the Palestinian students, and they study it like other Israelis in all streams of the Hebrew education.