Rethinking Language Transfer in Writing

The Myth of Classical Arabic Transfer in English Writing

This book challenges the widely held belief that Arab writers’ English texts are shaped by the rhetorical traditions of Classical Arabic. Through case studies of five Arab graduate students, the book shows how diglossia, uneven literacy instruction and limited engagement with written Arabic complicate assumptions about L1-to-L2 transfer.

A compelling read that will spark debate in the field with its humanizing and scientifically-grounded counter-narrative to several decades of reductive research

This book challenges the widely held belief that Arab writers’ English texts are shaped by the rhetorical traditions of Classical Arabic. Moving beyond contrastive rhetoric, it adopts a contextual, writer-centered approach that foregrounds literacy socialization, education and lived experience.

Through life-history case studies of five Arab graduate students, the book shows how diglossia, uneven literacy instruction and limited engagement with written Arabic complicate assumptions about L1-to-L2 transfer. Rather than drawing on Classical Arabic, many writers are effectively learning to write in English without a stable written model in their first language.

A timely intervention in second language writing and literacy studies, this book calls for a fundamental rethinking of how Arab L2 writers – and L2 writing more broadly – are understood.

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